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Humanitarian and Relief Logistics pp 167–182Cite as

A Multi-agent Based Framework for Vehicle Routing in Relief Delivery Systems

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Part of the book series: Operations Research/Computer Science Interfaces Series ((ORCS,volume 54))

Abstract

A dynamic vehicle routing problem that models the relief distribution operations in a post-disaster environment is addressed. As an approximate solution method, a multi-agent system with two hierarchical levels is proposed. Within the proposed framework, the vehicles have the ability to dynamically re-route, bid for new tasks and de-commit to previously undertaken tasks to take advantage of the continuous flow of incoming information. In order to evaluate the proposed architecture, a discrete-event simulator was built in an object-oriented language. A series of simulation cases were identified and the behavior of the proposed approach was compared to that of a centralized, on-line heuristic solution approach.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Production and Management Engineering, School of Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, Building 1, 12, V. Sofias, 67100, Xanthi, Greece

    A. S. Xanthopoulos & D. E. Koulouriotis

Authors
  1. A. S. Xanthopoulos
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  2. D. E. Koulouriotis
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to A. S. Xanthopoulos .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Department of FME, University of the Aegean, Chios, 82100, Greece

    Vasileios Zeimpekis

  2. , College of Business, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, N/A, Daytona Beach, 32114, Florida, USA

    Soumia Ichoua

  3. , Department of FME, University of the Aegean, Chios, 82100, Greece

    Ioannis Minis

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Xanthopoulos, A., Koulouriotis, D. (2013). A Multi-agent Based Framework for Vehicle Routing in Relief Delivery Systems. In: Zeimpekis, V., Ichoua, S., Minis, I. (eds) Humanitarian and Relief Logistics. Operations Research/Computer Science Interfaces Series, vol 54. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7007-6_9

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