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Delegate MAS for Large Scale and Dynamic PDP: A Case Study

  • Conference paper
Intelligent Distributed Computing V

Part of the book series: Studies in Computational Intelligence ((SCI,volume 382))

Abstract

Pickup and Delivery Problems (PDPs) have received significant research interest in the past decades. Their industrial relevance has stimulated the study of various types of solutions. Both centralized solutions, using discrete optimization techniques, as well as distributed, multi-agent system (MAS) solutions, have proven their merits. However, real PDP problems today are more and more characterized by (1) dynamism - in terms of tasks, service time, vehicle availability, infrastructure availability, and (2) their large scale - in terms of the geographical field of operation, the number of pickup and delivery tasks and vehicles. A combination of both characteristics brings unsolved challenges.

Delegate MAS is a coordination mechanism that could prove to be valuable for constructing a decentralized solution for dynamic and large scale PDP problems. In this paper, we illustrate a solution based on delegate MAS for solving PDP. Our solution enables different agents to dynamically collect and disseminate local information and make decisions in a fully decentralized way. We applied our approach to a concrete case study. Experimental results indicate the suitability of the approach for dynamic and large scale PDP problems.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Computer Science, Katholiek Universiteit Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200A, B-3001, Heverlee, Belgium

    Shaza Hanif, Rinde R. S. van Lon, Ning Gui & Tom Holvoet

Authors
  1. Shaza Hanif
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  2. Rinde R. S. van Lon
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  3. Ning Gui
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  4. Tom Holvoet
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Technology,Policy andManagement, Intelligent Interactive Dynamic Systems, Section Systems Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Jaffalaan 5, 2628BX, Delft, The Netherlands

    F. M. T. Brazier

  2. D-CIS lab, P.O. Box 90, 2600 AB, Delft, The Netherlands

    Kees Nieuwenhuis  & Gregor Pavlin  & 

  3. Faculty of Technology,Policy andManagement, Section Systems Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Jaffalaan 5, 2628BX, Delft, The Netherlands

    Martijn Warnier

  4. Faculty of Automatics, Computers and Electronics, Software Engineering Department, University of Craiova, Bvd. Decebal Nr. 107, 200440, Craiova, Romania

    Costin Badica

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© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Hanif, S., van Lon, R.R.S., Gui, N., Holvoet, T. (2011). Delegate MAS for Large Scale and Dynamic PDP: A Case Study. In: Brazier, F.M.T., Nieuwenhuis, K., Pavlin, G., Warnier, M., Badica, C. (eds) Intelligent Distributed Computing V. Studies in Computational Intelligence, vol 382. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24013-3_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24013-3_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-24012-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-24013-3

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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