Accession Number:

ADA379150

Title:

Multiagent Systems in Logistics Environment

Descriptive Note:

Final rept. 23 Sep 1996-22 Jun 1999

Corporate Author:

PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV UNIVERSITY PARK

Personal Author(s):

• Kumara, R. T.

Report Date:

2000-02-23

Pagination or Media Count:

26.0

Abstract:

A procurement problem for a manufacturing company is to decide the suppliers and manufacturing locations from a list of prospective candidates for the manufacture of products that will minimize the cost added to the price of the products. This is a typical logistics problem. Under some assumptions, this problem can be solved through negotiation in a forum of candidate transportation companies. From this perspective, we can model each transportation company as comprising of a master agent and several slave agents. A master agent negotiates for tasks with the master agents of other companies and assigns tasks to its own vehicles. A slave agent represents a vehicle which generates robust vehicle routes, and cost estimation for an assigned task by collaborating with other vehicles. We develop a theoretical information infrastructure for solving this problem using multi agents, game theory and stochastic programming. We apply this formalism to a logistics problem posed by USALIA and build an implementation platform.

Descriptors:

• *TRANSPORTATION
• *COST ESTIMATES
• *LOGISTICS
• *PROCUREMENT
• SYMPOSIA
• STOCHASTIC PROCESSES
• ENVIRONMENTS
• MANUFACTURING
• MATHEMATICAL PROGRAMMING
• COSTS
• ROUTING
• COMPANY LEVEL ORGANIZATIONS
• VEHICLES
• GAME THEORY
• INFRASTRUCTURE

Subject Categories:

• Administration and Management
• Economics and Cost Analysis
• Logistics, Military Facilities and Supplies

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE