On-line transportation scheduling using spatio-temporal reasoning

In this paper, we address the problem of the on-line transportation scheduling. Previous approaches use an off-line scheduling algorithm that accounts for new transportation tasks only when trucks are at a destination. To increase the performance of the system, we need to introduce the ability to account for the new transportation tasks immediately and to delegate it to a truck while this latter is moving toward a destination. For this purpose, the system needs to address two issues: (1) to determine the current location of the truck and its proximity to the departure and arrival of the new transportation task, and (2) to respect the temporal constraints. To this purpose, we use a space-time approach allowing us to deal with the first issue using a spatial reasoning, then address the second issue using a temporal reasoning. This approach is a first step towards a design of temporally situated multi-agent system that allows us to take location and the time of agents existing at this location to determine the suitable actions.