Exploring Semi-Autonomous Structure for Emergency Logistics Multi-Agent System

Abstract

Due to the command and control relationship in emergency logistics process, the emergency logistics agent shows some semi-autonomous features as it is not completely autonomous. Aiming at the implementation of the semi-autonomous feature, this paper presents a control structure as the basis of communication among the role agents in emergency logistics multi-agent system. The suggested control structure is composed by the controller, communicator and control property set. The control property set and its corresponding ACL primitive is the core of the whole structure for representing the semi-autonomous feature, which can simulate the control behavior in the practical emergency logistics process. By means of the control property set, the controller can set the control property to the preparing information for transmission, and the communicator can encapsulate the preparing information into the FIPA ACL message with the extended control primitive. Finally, an illustrative example of multi-agent communication is proposed to validate the effectiveness of the suggested semi-autonomous structure.