Decentralized control strategies for transportation systems

The transport of baggage through airports by means of individual vehicles imposes severe challenges on a central control system. In this paper, a decentralised control concept is described, which can overcome the deficiencies of central control systems. The decentralised concept consists of (a) a market-based strategy for the assignment of transportation tasks to vehicles and (b) a vehicle routing mechanism in analogy to internet data routing mechanisms. Extensive simulation tests show that significant advantages can be achieved regarding travel time. The concept can be transferred to other kinds of transportation systems, such as autonomous guided vehicles in factories and ports, and furthermore to other allocation problems for mobile resources.