Co-Simulation of Multiple Vehicle Routing Problem Models

Complex systems are often designed in a decentralized and open way so that they can operate on heterogeneous entities that communicate with each other. Numerous studies consider the process of components simulation in a complex system as a proven approach to realistically predict the behavior of a complex system or to effectively manage its complexity. The simulation of different complex system components can be coupled via co-simulation to reproduce the behavior emerging from their interaction. On the other hand, multi-agent simulations have been largely implemented in complex system modeling and simulation. Each multi-agent simulator’s role is to solve one of the VRP objectives. These simulators interact within a co-simulation platform called MECSYCO, to ensure the integration of the various proposed VRP models. This paper presents the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) simulation results in several aspects, where the main goal is to satisfy several client demands. The experiments show the performance of the proposed VRP multi-model and carry out its improvement in terms of computational complexity.