July/Aug 2004

Ask anyone who's ever worked in a busy traffic office if the process could be fully automated and the likely reaction will be incredulity. There are too many variables and last-minute adjustments requiring human intervention; that will be the very reasonable response.

Yet logistics is seen as a prime beneficiary of a new computing technology called multi-agent systems. "Logistics relies on centralised data processing, but businesses are not structured in such a monolithic way," said Professor Mike Wooldridge, head of computer science at Liverpool University, at a seminar organised by multi-agent specialist Magenta.

"With multi-agents you delegate the micro-management of decision-making to autonomous computer programs which take decision on your behalf or on behalf of the host program."

Wooldridge says multi-agents mimic human decision-making. "They are self-organising, co-ordinate dynamically with each other, handle errors logically and make an effort to ensure that a mistake does not snarl up the whole system. Local control means there is less risk of a failure further up the decision-making hierarchy."

 

Wooldridge admits there are still some issues to resolve, such as how to establish a virtual society of multi-agents and how to resolve conflicts between competing aims. "But it will happen anyway, so it makes sense to start thinking about how they could work in your business now."