Abstract
In this paper, we propose a practical method for solving the delivery-scheduling problem and discuss its implementation. The method is based on the cooperative problem solving with multiple agents. In the truck delivery scheduling method, the covered region is partitioned into multiple sub-regions and each sub-region is assigned a sub-problem solving agent. For integrating those sub-problem solving agents, an integration-and-evaluation agent solves the total problem. We also discuss the functions for building cooperative decision support system in a mobile environment in delivery scheduling domain. We consider a delivery center with function, i.e., generating and integrating delivery schedule, acquiring and managing the information shared commonly by all delivery persons, and dispatching the selected information to delivery persons, and the mobile terminal that a delivery person uses for exchanging information with the center. By employing the multi-agent problem solving framework for the delivery scheduling problem, we achieved an easy incorporation of various evaluation parameters in the process of scheduling, efficient use and management of scheduling knowledge of various levels.
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Sawamoto, J., Tsuji, H., Koizumi, H. (2002). Continuous Truck Delivery Scheduling and Execution System with Multiple Agents. In: Kuwabara, K., Lee, J. (eds) Intelligent Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. PRIMA 2002. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 2413. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45680-5_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45680-5_14
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