J. van der Niet
Intelligent Agents in de Logistiek
Literature survey,
Report 2005.TL.6963, Transport Engineering and Logistics.
An intelligent agent is a system, which is capable to execute tasks, to
communicate, and to take decisions by its own based upon observations, own
knowledge and cognitive competencies. The capability to learn and to
extend the knowledge is another quality of intelligent agents, which is
used to adapt to any changes in the environment of the system.
Intelligent agents play an important role in the automation and the
development of new technologies in order to optimize processes. For these
continuous improvements often more and more intelligent agents are used to
take over roles and responsibilities in existing processes. Also within
the logistics the number of processes making use of intelligent agents for
the management and execution of tasks is growing. When studying several
applications of intelligent agents in the logistics, it turns out that
there is a difference between the theoretical approach and the practical
use of these agents. The role of intelligent agents in logistic systems is
often pre-programmed for executing a subtask of the process. The agents
usually combine these subtasks with a communication and monitoring role.
Despite the fact that the agents in logistical practice have less
'intelligent' qualities than the agents described in the theory, still
there are a number of advantages with the use of intelligent agents in the
logistics. By using agents in logistic systems, processes are becoming
faster, more stable and more simplified. Taking into account all these
advantages, it is very significant to continue the use of intelligent
agents in order to improve logistic systems.
Reports on Transport Engineering and Logistics (in Dutch)
Modified: 2005.06.19;
logistics@3mE.tudelft.nl
, TU Delft
/ 3mE
/ TT
/ LT.