Combining Pheromomes and Potential Fields to Consider Follow-Up-Jobs

Nature inspired methods are a popular mean to control multiagent system (MAS) in logistic scenarios. Methods like pheromones or potential fields are used as primary control mechanism or for job assignment. Although empty runs are one of the main cost driver in logistics, this aspect is rarely considered in the job assignment procedures in logistic MAS. In this paper we introduce a combination of the pheromones and potential fields to estimate the attractiveness of transport jobs. The attractiveness will be estimated depending on two aspects: the chance to acquire a follow-up job and the waiting times of costumers. The mechanism is introduced in the context of an innovative railway concept called RailCab. The systems does not rely on central control instance and can be entirely implemented by peer to peer communication.