Container handling using multi-agent architecture
by Meriam Kefi, Khaled Ghedira, Ouajdi Korbaa, Pascal Yim
International Journal of Intelligent Information and Database Systems (IJIIDS), Vol. 3, No. 3, 2009

Abstract: Container terminals are essential intermodal interfaces in the global transportation network. Efficient container handling at terminals is important in reducing transportation costs and keeping shipping schedules. This paper discusses a multi-agent model to simulate, solve and optimise the amount of storage space for handling container departures within a fluvial or maritime port. The multi-agent model is developed to minimise the expected total number of shifts or relocations while respecting spatio-temporal constraints. Experimental and numerical runs are given and illustrated. These runs carry out the proposed multi-agent model with comparison to the associated centralised version, basing on non-informed search algorithm and informed search algorithm. They show that the multi-agent model reduces rather the number of expected relocation movements especially when basing on informed search algorithm. We have also compare performances of our model with those of the B&B method and the heuristic-based method proposed in related works.

Online publication date: Fri, 07-Aug-2009

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