Title: On mobile agents for autonomous logistics: an analysis of mobile agents considering the fan out and sundry strategies

Authors: Markus Becker, Gulshanara Singh, Bernd-Ludwig Wenning, Carmelita Gorg

Addresses: AG Communication Networks, Otto-Hahn-Allee – NW1, University Bremen, Bremen 28359, Germany. ' AG Communication Networks, Otto-Hahn-Allee – NW1, University Bremen, Bremen 28359, Germany. ' AG Communication Networks, Otto-Hahn-Allee – NW1, University Bremen, Bremen 28359, Germany. ' AG Communication Networks, Otto-Hahn-Allee – NW1, University Bremen, Bremen 28359, Germany

Abstract: The current trends and recent changes in logistics lead to new, complex and partially conflicting requirements for logistic planning and control systems. Due to the distributed nature of logistics, the usage of agent technology is promising. Due to the mobile nature of logistics, the usage of mobile agent technology is promising as well. Scenarios of usage of mobile agents in logistics are presented, a notation for those scenarios is defined and it is shown analytically in which cases the usage of mobile agent is superior to conventional communication. The main variable under study is the fan out, which is the number of partners a mobile agent needs to communicate with.

Keywords: autonomous logistics; fan out; mobile agents; scenario notation; agent-based systems; multi-agent systems; logistics planning; logistics control; communication.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOI.2007.014515

International Journal of Services Operations and Informatics, 2007 Vol.2 No.2, pp.114 - 130

Published online: 12 Jul 2007 *

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