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Book on adaptive agents and logistics available
BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT
-----------------
Title: Adaptive Search and the Management of
Logistics Systems
Base Models for Learning Agents
Author: Christian Bierwirth
Series: Operations Research/Computer Science Interfaces
Editors: Ramesh Sharda
Stefan Voß
Publisher: Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston
Pages: Hardbound, 240 pp.
Available: November 1999, ISBN 0-7923-7704-4
Price: USD 125.00
ABOUT THE BOOK
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The management problems addressed in Adaptive Search and the
Management of Logistic Systems stem from the recent changes in the
logistics sector. Global competition and increasing consumer
expectations are forcing industrial enterprises to reorganize their
business processes to support better and more cost-efficient
services. Quick and precise customer delivery processes have been
recognized as the key to significant savings and growth for a
company. In seeking solutions to the related problems of planning and
control in today's logistic activities, the book is divided into two
parts. Part I lays down the fundamentals of evolutionary adaptive
systems before an architectural model for adaptive agents is
developed. Part II is devoted to applications of these adaptive
agents. By focusing on elementary yet complex problems, it is hoped to
glean sufficient details of the real world.
In its examination of the logistics network, the book employs a simple
yet powerful framework of evolutionary search, allowing efficient
support for reactive problem solving by the actors in the logistics
network. Following modern terminology, we refer to evolutionary
algorithms as learning or adaptive agents. Different from other
software artifacts, which are also designated as agents in the current
literature, these adaptive agents do not communicate directly by
exchanging messages. Instead, while exploring the space of logistic
operation, they communicate by mutually changing details of the common
environment they perceive.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Part I Fundamentals of Evolutionary Adaptive Systems
1. FROM ARTIFICIAL TO COMPUTATIONAL INTELLIGENCE 3
2. PRINCIPLES OF SYSTEMS 21
3. GENETIC ALGORITHMS 47
4. ADAPTATION TO STATIC ENVIRONMENTS 61
5. ADAPTIVE AGENTS 85
Part II Applications of Evolutionary Adaptive Systems
6. PROBLEM REPRESENTATION IN LOGISTICS SYSTEMS 109
7. ADAPTIVE SCHEDULING 131
8. TOWARDS REAL WORLD SCHEDULING SYSTEMS 155
9. ADAPTIVE AGENTS AT WORK 179
Epilogue 201
References 202
Index 217
Best regards,
----
Dr. Christian Bierwirth
University of Bremen Tel: +49-421-218-3017
Dept. of Economics Fax: +49-421-218-4271
Post Box 33 04 40 Email: chb@logistik.uni-bremen.de
D-28334 Bremen, Germany Web: www.logistik.uni-bremen.de