Decentralized problem solving in logistics and production with partly intelligent agents and comparison with alternative approaches

This paper focuses on the applicability of Distributed Artificial Intelligence (DAI} techniques for solving three “real-world” logistical and producrion problems. The Parrly Intelligent Agents (PIAs) we use are equipped with simple algorirhms supplemented by knowledge-based components. By comparison wirh centralized methods we can judge rhe benefits of our new DALapproaches. Since we are working on the solution of real-world problems, our paper is not concerned with ivory tower issues emerging in parts of DA1 research. If is a central objective of our work to present in detail how to make “practicable” agent systems and thereby reduce the gap between theory and practice.