A delivery scheduling system by the distributed cooperative multiple agents

In this paper, we propose a practical method for solving the delivery scheduling problem with multiple agents and discuss its implementation. The method is based on the distributed cooperative problem solving. In the delivery scheduling system, the covered region is partitioned into multiple subregions and each subregion is assigned a subproblem solving agent which solves the problem of scheduling of drivers and trucks in the subregion. Integrating those subproblem solving agents, an integration-and-evaluation agent solves the total problem. By employing the distributed cooperative problem solving framework for the delivery scheduling problem, we achieved an easy incorporation of various evaluation parameters in the process of scheduling, efficient use and management of scheduling knowledge of various levels, and reduction of computer processing by division of the problem into subproblems