NSF Award
0127934
Abstract: This research effort will explore a multi-agent negotiation-based approach to traffic management and route guidance. In the proposed multi-agent system called Cooperative Transportation Management and Route Guidance System (CTMRGS), IRANS (In-vehicle Routing and Navigation Systems) and ISPs (Information Service Providers) are represented as agents. The idea is to allow all drivers and their IRANS to have the ability to choose, make, and pay for a safe, efficient, cost-effective trip. Each IRANS agent negotiates with the ISP agents about the trip for a minimal change in the preferred routes and thus ensures that the driver will comply with it. The ISP agents inform network managers with the anticipated road usages in exchange for the current traffic conditions to be used in the ISP's negotiation model. The proposed negotiation is based on a new principled negotiation based approach that is significantly different from other multi-agent negotiation and bargaining approaches (e.g., contract-net) discussed in the literature. Therefore negotiation is not entirely based on individual agent's utility maximization criteria. The agents exchange their objective criteria before they negotiate for routes so that each other's objectives are included in the route generation and alteration functions. The proposed multi-agent system is compliant with ATIS6 market package for Integrated Transportation Management/Route Guidance with specific focus on overcoming drivers' non-compliance hurdles present in the current ATIS6 package.
