Multiagent Coordination Enabling Autonomous Logistics


Book Description

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.




Emerging Dimensions of Technology Management


Book Description

​ Technology is the key driver of business. May it be airport, ICT , smart governance, manufacturing or plantations. Technology management opens up opportunities for the business and help achieve leadership positions. This collection of papers provides a glimpse of issues faced in different sectors. These papers also should inspire more researchers to expand the scope of the subject itself.




Dynamics in Logistics


Book Description

This open access book highlights the interdisciplinary aspects of logistics research. Featuring empirical, methodological, and practice-oriented articles, it addresses the modelling, planning, optimization and control of processes. Chiefly focusing on supply chains, logistics networks, production systems, and systems and facilities for material flows, the respective contributions combine research on classical supply chain management, digitalized business processes, production engineering, electrical engineering, computer science and mathematical optimization. To celebrate 25 years of interdisciplinary and collaborative research conducted at the Bremen Research Cluster for Dynamics in Logistics (LogDynamics), in this book hand-picked experts currently or formerly affiliated with the Cluster provide retrospectives, present cutting-edge research, and outline future research directions.




Autonomous Cooperation and Control in Logistics


Book Description

Many new technologies – like RFID, GPS, and sensor networks – that dominate innovative developments in logistics are based on the idea of autonomous cooperation and control. This self-organisational concept describes „...processes of decentralized decision-making in heterarchical structures. It presumes interacting elements in non-deterministic systems, which possess the capability and possibility to render decisions. The objective of autonomous cooperation and control is the achievement of increased robustness and positive emergence of the total system due to distributed and flexible coping with dynamics and complexity“ (Hülsmann & Windt, 2007). In order to underlie these technology-driven developments with a fundamental theoretical foundation this edited volume asks for contributions and limitations of applying the principles of autonomous cooperation and control to logistics processes and systems. It intends to identify, describe, and explain – in the context of production and distribution logistics – the effects on performance and robustness, the enablers and impediments for the feasibility, the essential cause-effect-relations, etc. of concepts, methods, technologies, and routines of autonomous cooperation and control in logistics. Therefore, the analyses collected in this edited volume aim to develop a framework for finding the optimal degree as well as the upper and lower boundaries of autonomous cooperation and control of logistics processes from the different perspectives of production technology, electronics and communication engineering, informatics and mathematics, as well as management sciences and economics.




Optimizing Transport Logistics Processes with Multiagent Planning and Control


Book Description

Max Gath presents a multiagent system for the optimization of transport logistics in highly complex and dynamic domains. The described solution dynamically optimizes processes and provides a high flexibility, scalability, robustness, and adaptability to individual customer demands. The experimental evaluation points out the effectiveness and efficiency by using the example of commonly applied benchmarks as well as two case studies in groupage traffic and in courier, express, and parcel services with same-day deliveries. Both case studies were performed with leading transport companies in Germany. The results demonstrate that the multiagent-based solution satisfies domain-specific requirements and exploits high optimization potential in real-world processes.




Dynamics in Logistics


Book Description

The volume comprises the proceedings of the third International Conference on Dynamics in Logistics LDIC 2012. The scope of the conference targeted the identification, analysis, and description of the dynamics of logistic processes and networks. The spectrum ranged from the modeling and planning of processes and innovative methods like autonomous control and knowledge management to the new technologies provided by radio frequency identification, mobile communication, and networking. The growing dynamics in the area of logistics poses completely new challenges: Logistic processes and networks must rapidly and flexibly adapt to continuously changing conditions. LDIC 2012 provided a venue for researchers from academia and industry interested in the technical advances in dynamics in logistics. The conference addressed research in logistics from a wide range of fields, e.g. engineering, computer science and operations research. The volume consists of two invited papers and of 49 contributed papers divided into various subjects including transport logistics, routing in dynamic logistic networks, modeling, simulation, optimization and collaboration in logistics, identification technologies, mathematical modeling in transport and production logistics, information, communication, risk and failure in logistic systems, autonomous control in logistic processes, global supply chains and industrial applications, and the Internet of Things in the context of logistics.




Logistics and Supply Chain Innovation


Book Description

This contributed volume presents state-of-the-art advances in logistics theory in various fields as well as case studies. The book reports on a number of recently conducted studies in the Dinalog and the EffizienzCluster LogistikRuhr, thus bridging the gap between different perspectives of theoretical and applied research. A selection of theoretical topics, practical examples, case studies and project reports is presented in this volume. The editors carefully selected contributions from a wide variety of projects, which were carried out in both the Dinalog cluster and the Effizienzcluster LogistikRuhr. The contributions are grouped in five main sections, each representing key domains in the evolution of logistics and supply chain management: sustainability, urban logistics, value chain management, IT-based innovation, knowledge management. This book is intended for both researchers and practitioners in the field of logistics and supply chain management, to serve as an important source of information for further research as well as to stimulate further innovation.




Anticipation Across Disciplines


Book Description

Never before was anticipation more relevant to the life and activity of humankind than it is today. “It is no overstatement to suggest that humanity’s future will be shaped by its capacity to anticipate....” (Research Agenda for the 21st Century, National Science Foundation). The sciences and the humanities can no longer risk explaining away the complexity and interactivity that lie at the foundation of life and living. The perspective of the world that anticipation opens justifies the descriptor “the post-Cartesian Revolution.” If anticipation is a valid research domain, what practical relevance can we await? Indeed, anticipation is more than just the latest catch-word in marketing the apps developed by the digital technology industry. Due to spectacular advances in the study of the living, anticipation can claim a legitimate place in current investigations and applications in the sciences and the humanities. Biology, genetics, medicine, as well as politics and cognitive, behavioral, and social sciences, provide rich evidence of anticipatory processes at work. Readers seeking a foundation for an ticipation will find in these pages recent outcomes pertinent to plant life, political anticipation, cognitive science, architecture, computation. The authors contributing to this volume frame experimental data in language that can be shared among experts from all fields of endeavor. The major characteristic is the inference from the richness of data to principles and practical consequences.




Advances in Intelligent Modelling and Simulation


Book Description

One of the most challenging issues in today’s large-scale computational modeling and design is to effectively manage the complex distributed environments, such as computational clouds, grids, ad hoc, and P2P networks operating under various types of users with evolving relationships fraught with uncertainties. In this context, the IT resources and services usually belong to different owners (institutions, enterprises, or individuals) and are managed by different administrators. Moreover, uncertainties are presented to the system at hand in various forms of information that are incomplete, imprecise, fragmentary, or overloading, which hinders in the full and precise resolve of the evaluation criteria, subsequencing and selection, and the assignment scores. Intelligent scalable systems enable the flexible routing and charging, advanced user interactions and the aggregation and sharing of geographically-distributed resources in modern large-scale systems. This book presents new ideas, theories, models, technologies, system architectures and implementation of applications in intelligent scalable computing systems. In 15 chapters, several important Artificial Intelligence-based techniques, such as fuzzy logic, neural networks, evolutionary, and memetic algorithms are studied and implemented. All of those technologies have formed the foundation for the intelligent scalable computing that we know of today. We believe that this book will serve as a reference for students, researchers, and industry practitioners working or interested in joining interdisciplinary research in the areas of intelligent decision systems using emergent distributed computing paradigms. It will also allow newcomers (students and researchers alike) to grasp key issues and potential solutions on the selected topics. This book presents new ideas, theories, models, technologies, system architectures and implementation of applications in intelligent scalable computing systems. In 15 chapters, several important Artificial Intelligence-based techniques, such as fuzzy logic, neural networks, evolutionary, and memetic algorithms are studied and implemented. All of those technologies have formed the foundation for the intelligent scalable computing that we know of today. We believe that this book will serve as a reference for students, researchers, and industry practitioners working or interested in joining interdisciplinary research in the areas of intelligent decision systems using emergent distributed computing paradigms. It will also allow newcomers (students and researchers alike) to grasp key issues and potential solutions on the selected topics.




Advances in Production Management Systems: Innovative and Knowledge-Based Production Management in a Global-Local World


Book Description

The three volumes IFIP AICT 438, 439, and 440 constitute the refereed proceedings of the International IFIP WG 5.7 Conference on Advances in Production Management Systems, APMS 2014, held in Ajaccio, France, in September 2014. The 233 revised full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 271 submissions. They are organized in 6 parts: knowledge discovery and sharing; knowledge-based planning and scheduling; knowledge-based sustainability; knowledge-based services; knowledge-based performance improvement, and case studies.