Agents Toward Vehicle Routing Problem With Time Windows

Abstract

We suggest an efficient polynomial algorithm for the vehicle routing problem with time windows based on agent negotiation. A generic agent decomposition of the problem is introduced featuring a clear separation between the local planning performed by the individual vehicles and the abstract global coordination achieved by negotiation—differentiating the presented algorithm from the classical centralized algorithms. The semantic of the abstract negotiation process is discussed, as well as the two alternative local planning strategies used by the individual vehicles. A relevant comparison to the state-of-the-art classical and agent-based algorithms is provided, missing from most previous agent-based studies. The algorithm performs slightly worse than the state-of-the-art classical algorithms but improves on all the previous comparable agent-based algorithms.