Autonomous Transport Coordination
Autonomous Logistics provides logistic objects with decision-making, communication, and coordination capabilities in order to fullfil their respective goals. For the Intelligent Container each loaded cargo and the means of transport moving the container are represented by software agents as autonomous decision makers. The cargo agent aims at being delivered in time with minimum costs. The means of transport agent maximises its loading rate and finally its profit at given operating costs.
Means of transport and cargo are further characterised by their respective technical requirements and capabilities (e.g., cooling or online sensor monitoring). These different goals and capabilities necessitate cooperation of agents. Finding qualified partners or services is one of the main issues to be solved. Transport coordination for Intelligent Containers enables the agents to use service brokers to find partners. Furthermore a means of transport may ask another means of transport within its corporation, e.g., for fitting cargo at its next destination.
Cooperation between cargo and means of transport starts with negotiations on terms of the contract. In the context of multiagent system there are multiple standardised agent interaction protocols to make an agreement. In our case the cargo agent sends a request for bids to a service broker that propagates this request to fitting means of transport. These may then send a transport proposal to the cargo agent including the transportation costs and additional information on their technical features. The cargo agent will choose the best bid and send its agree to conclude the contract. Other bidders are getting a rejection for their bid. The bid process could be iterated by the cargo agent by sending a call for bids again instead of a final rejection.
This agent-based coordination process may either release the forwarding expeditor by autonomous decision-making or generate proposals as an assistant system. The transportation customer benefits from accelerated transport execution and increased flexibilty in choosing carriers or even changing them during the ongoing transportation process, e.g., in case of operational faults.