A Logistical Multi-Agent System

Logistical applications traditionally aim to decrease the cost of logistical activity. In accordance, researchers developed several techniques to compute economical routes for vehicles generating least costs. However, transportation companies experience a shift of emphasis in their planning nowadays. Due to the highly competitive nature of transportation, customer preferences play a more and more important role in planning. In our multi-agent model we chose to model customers as agents to emphasize their importance in planning. This is different from traditional models, where only vehicles are modeled. To have a package transported, a customer agent has to negotiate a contract with a transport agent. Any negotiation technique can be used to establish the contracts. To enable agents to adapt to changes, contracts can be broken and re-negotiated resulting in new agent plans. This paper describes a multi-agent system where customer and vehicle agents dynamically change their contracts, hence change their planning. They use negotiation techniques like auctioning and decommitment to manipulate the contracts. Additionally, agents form coalitions to provide more sophisticated services, like multi-modal transportation.