Anticipatory Vehicle Routing using Delegate Multi-Agent Systems

This paper presents an agent-based approach, called delegate multi-agent systems, for anticipatory vehicle routing to avoid traffic congestion. In this approach, individual vehicles are represented by agents, which themselves issue lightweight agents that explore alternative routes in the environment on behalf of the vehicles. Based on the evaluation of the alternatives, the vehicles then issue light-weight agents for allocating road segments, spreading the vehicles´ intentions and coordinating their behavior. To evaluate the approach, we have developed an initial prototype application. Test results indicate that delegate multi-agent systems are a promising approach for anticipatory vehicle routing.