Integration of Case Based Reasoning in Multi-agent System for the Real-Time Container Stacking in Seaport Terminals

In seaport terminals, Container Stacking Problem (CSP) consists of determining the exact storage location of incoming containers in the storage area. During the stacking process, many unexpected events and disturbances may occur and, then, scheduled position of containers must be modified. In this paper, we suggest a new multi-agent architecture based on the Case Based Reasoning mechanism for modeling the container storage process in an uncertain and disturbed environment. The suggested multi agent system is based on three agents: interface agent, container agent and evaluation agent. Computational experiments show that integration of Case Based Reasoning in Multi Agent System seems to be effective for the real-time container stacking in seaport terminals.