Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

An Agent-Based Simulation Framework to Evaluate Urban Logistics Schemes

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Computational Logistics (ICCL 2016)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 9855))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

Inefficient urban freight transport has a negative impact on both livability in cities and profit margins in the supply chain. Urban logistics schemes, consisting of governmental policies and company initiatives, attempt to address these problems. However, successful schemes are difficult to realize due to the divergent objectives of the agents involved in urban logistics. Traditional optimization techniques fall short when evaluating schemes, as they do not capture the required change in behavior of autonomous agents. To properly evaluate schemes, we develop an agent-based simulation framework that assesses the interaction between five types of autonomous agents. Compared to existing studies in this field, we contribute by (i) explicitly including company-driven initiatives, and (ii) adopting a supply chain-wide perspective. We illustrate the working of our framework by testing a number of schemes on a virtual network.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Allen, J., Browne, M., Woodburn, A., Leonardi, J.: The role of urban consolidation centres in sustainable freight transport. Transp. Rev. 32(4), 473–490 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Anand, N., Quak, H., van Duin, R., Tavasszy, L.: City logistics modeling efforts: trends and gaps - a review. Procedia Soc. Behav. Sci. 39, 101–115 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Anderson, S., Allen, J., Browne, M.: Urban logistics - how can it meet policy makers sustainability objectives? J. Transp. Geogr. 13(1), 71–81 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Bektaş, T., Crainic, T.G., Van Woensel, T.: From managing urban freight to smart city logistics networks. CIRRELT 2015–2017 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Benjelloun, A., Crainic, T.G.: Trends, challenges, and perspectives in city logistics. In: Transportation and Land Use Interaction, Proceedings TRANSLU, vol. 8, pp. 269–284 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Boer, E., Otten, M.B.J., Essen, H.: Comparison of various transport modes on a EU scale with the STREAM database. CE Delft (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Boerkamps, J., van Binsbergen, A.: Goodtrip - a new approach for modelling and evaluating urban goods distribution. In: Taniguchi, E., R.G., T. (eds.) City Logistics I, pp. 175–186. ARRB Group Limited, Melbourne (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Browne, M., Sweet, M., Woodburn, A., Allen, J.: Urban freight consolidation centres. Transport Studies Group 10 (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Cattaruzza, D., Absi, N., Feillet, D., González-Feliu, J.: Vehicle routing problems for city logistics. EURO J. Transp. Logistics, 1–29 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Crainic, T.G., Ricciardi, N., Storchi, G.: Models for evaluating and planning city logistics systems. Transp. Sci. 43(4), 432–454 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Gevaers, R., Van de Voorde, E., Vanelslander, T.: Characteristics and typology of last-mile logistics from an innovation perspective in an urban context. In: Macharis, C., Melo, S. (eds.) City Distribution and Urban Freight Transport: Multiple Perspectives, pp. 56–71. Edward Elger, Cheltenham (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Kim, G., Ong, Y.S., Heng, C.K., Tan, P.S., Zhang, N.A.: City vehicle routing problem (city VRP): a review. IEEE Trans. Intell. Transp. Syst. 16(4), 1654–1666 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Macharis, C., Milan, L., Verlinde, S.: A stakeholder-based multicriteria evaluation framework for city distribution. Res. Transp. Bus. Manage. 11, 75–84 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Minkoff, A.S.: A Markov decision model and decomposition heuristic for dynamic vehicle dispatching. Oper. Res. 41(1), 77–90 (1993)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  15. Osborne, M.J., Rubinstein, A.: A Course in Game Theory. MIT Press, Cambridge (1994)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  16. Quak, H.: Urban freight transport: the challenge of sustainability. In: Macharis, C., Melo, S. (eds.) City Distribution and Urban Freight Transport: Multiple Perspectives, pp. 37–56. Edward Elger, Cheltenham (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Roca-Riu, M., Estrada, M., Fernández, E.: An evaluation of urban consolidation centers through continuous analysis with non-equal market share companies. Transp. Res. Procedia 12, 370–382 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Russo, F., Comi, A.: A classification of city logistics measures and connected impacts. Procedia Soc. Behav. Sci. 2(3), 6355–6365 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Tamagawa, D., Taniguchi, E., Yamada, T.: Evaluating city logistics measures using a multi-agent model. Procedia Soc. Behav. Sci. 2(3), 6002–6012 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Taniguchi, E., Thompson, R.G., Yamada, T.: Concepts and visions for urban transport and logistics relating to human security. In: Taniguchi, E., Fwa, T.F., Thompson, R.G. (eds.) Urban Transportation and Logistics: Health, Safety, and Security Concerns, pp. 1–30. CRC Press, Boca Raton (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  21. United Nations: Worlds population increasingly urban with more than half living in urban areas (2014). https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/world-urbanization-prospects.html. Accessed 22 Mar 2016

  22. Van Duin, R.J., van Kolck, A., Anand, N., Taniguchi, E.: Towards an agent-based modelling approach for the evaluation of dynamic usage of urban distribution centres. Procedia Soc. Behav. Sci. 39, 333–348 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Van Heeswijk, W.J.A., Mes, M.R., Schutten, M.J.: An approximate dynamic programming approach to urban freight distribution with batch arrivals. In: Corman, F., Voß, S., Negenborn, R.R. (eds.) ICCL 2015. LNCS, vol. 9335, pp. 61–75. Springer, Switzerland (2015)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  24. Van Rooijen, T., Quak, H.: Local impacts of a new urban consolidation centre-the case of Binnenstadservice. nl. Procedia Soc. Behav. Sci. 2(3), 5967–5979 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Wangapisit, O., Taniguchi, E., Teo, J.S., Qureshi, A.G.: Multi-agent systems modelling for evaluating joint delivery systems. Procedia Soc. Behav. Sci. 125, 472–483 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Industrial Engineering and Business Information Systems, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE, Enschede, The Netherlands

    Wouter van Heeswijk, Martijn Mes & Marco Schutten

Authors
  1. Wouter van Heeswijk
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Martijn Mes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Marco Schutten
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wouter van Heeswijk .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

    Ana Paias

  2. University of Vienna , Vienna, Austria

    Mario Ruthmair

  3. University of Hamburg , Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Stefan Voß

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this paper

Cite this paper

van Heeswijk, W., Mes, M., Schutten, M. (2016). An Agent-Based Simulation Framework to Evaluate Urban Logistics Schemes. In: Paias, A., Ruthmair, M., Voß, S. (eds) Computational Logistics. ICCL 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9855. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44896-1_24

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44896-1_24

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-44895-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-44896-1

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation