Multiagent Coordination Enabling Autonomous Logistics

This book describes the implementation of autonomous control with multiagent technology. Therewith, it tackles the challenges of supply network management caused by the complexity, the dynamics, and the distribution of logistics processes. The paradigm of autonomous logistics reduces the computational complexity and copes with the dynamics locally by delegating process control to the participating objects. As an example, shipping containers may themselves plan and schedule their way through logistics networks in accordance with objectives imposed by their owners. The technologies enabling autonomous logistics are thoroughly described and reviewed. The presented solution has been used in a realistic simulation of real-world container logistics processes. The validation shows that autonomous control is feasible and that it outperforms the previous centralised dispatching approach by significantly increasing the resource utilisation efficiency. Moreover, the multiagent system relieves human dispatchers from dealing with standard cases, giving them more time to solve exceptional cases appropriately.

Dr. Arne Schuldt received his diploma in Computer Science from Universität Bremen in 2006. He then joined the Artificial Intelligence research group of Prof. Otthein Herzog at Universität Bremen. Up to now, he has more than 20 publications on autonomous control in logistics, multiagent-based simulation, and qualitative spatial reasoning. Since 2008 he gives lectures on information systems in logistics. In 2010 he received his PhD from Universität Bremen with summa cum laude. His PhD thesis has been awarded with the Science Award for Logistics of the German Logistics Association (BVL) in 2010.