Title: A multi-agent framework for efficient food distribution in disaster areas

Authors: Umar Manzoor; Maria Zubair; Kanwal Batool; Bassam Zafar

Addresses: Department of Computer Science, National University of Computing and Emerging Sciences, Islamabad, Pakistan; Faculty of Computing and Information Technology, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia ' Department of Computer Science, National University of Computing and Emerging Sciences, Islamabad, Pakistan ' Department of Computer Science, National University of Computing and Emerging Sciences, Islamabad, Pakistan ' Faculty of Computing and Information Technology, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Abstract: Disasters have been causing huge damages to infrastructure as well as human life for a long time. The time immediately following a disaster needs to be managed efficiently to minimise the damage to the human population in that area. One of the key challenges faced when disaster hits an area is efficient distribution of resources such as medicine, food, water, etc. In this paper, we propose a solution particularly for distribution of food which can be extended for any other resource as well. We have proposed a solution in which a big disaster region is divided into smaller areas (regions) and multi-agent systems are used to deliver food in these regions. Agents use shortest path algorithms and coordination to deliver food within their particular region efficiently. In the experiment section, we have performed different experiments to verify how the proposed solution performs when one of the parameters is changed and how this system performs in different scenarios.

Keywords: disaster management; food distribution; multi-agent systems; MAS coordination; agent-based systems; emergency management; disaster areas; resource distribution; emergency resources; emergency aid; emergency relief; relief aid.

DOI: 10.1504/IJITST.2014.068711

International Journal of Internet Technology and Secured Transactions, 2014 Vol.5 No.4, pp.327 - 343

Received: 06 Mar 2014
Accepted: 26 Jun 2014
Published online: 22 Apr 2015 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article