Agent-based design and organization of intermodal freight transportation systems

In logistics of today´s economy we have to deal with distributed systems. To support the demanding management task the multi-agent approach offers promising perspectives. Intermodal freight transportation (IFT) is a complex task involving a lot of information flowing across organizational boundaries. However, the interorganizational information flows are often slow, and sometimes even are blocked, due to lack of standardized data storage format, no rules for arranging automated transfer from one system to another, and so on. This paper presents a multi-agent system (MAS) approach to the design and organization of an integrated IFT information architecture. We propose to organize the IFT system as an open network of autonomous agents, each encapsulating one or more logistics roles, and each coordinating its activities with other agents. The architecture is first described using an abstract specification based on concepts such as agents, roles and role protocols, and then specified in details using an example. A major conclusion is that the MAS based architecture can support IFT parties to integrate their information systems in an effort to truly reach a seamless intermodal transport.