Decision-support systems and simulation for logistics: Moving forward for a distributed, real-time, interactive simulation environment

Logistics constitutes a very complex reality that requires a high level of co-ordination among many different entities. In the maritime environment this problem is very difficult to solve. The authors propose an innovative approach based on the extensive use of simulation and virtual reality in a web environment as a wired decision support system. The paper presents projects that have been developed in this sector and new research under development