Title: An Agent-Based Approach for Optimizing Modular Vehicle Fleet Operation,
Abstract: Modularity in military vehicle designs enables on-base assembly, disassembly,
and reconfiguration of vehicles, which can be beneficial in promoting fleet
adaptability and life cycle cost savings. To properly manage the fleet
operation and to control the resupply, demand prediction, and scheduling
process, this paper illustrates an agent-based approach customized for highly
modularized military vehicle fleets and studies the feasibility and flexibility
of modularity for various mission scenarios. Given deterministic field demands
with operation stochasticity, we compare the performance of a modular fleet to
a conventional fleet in equivalent operation strategies and also compare fleet
performance driven by heuristic rules and optimization. Several indicators are
selected to quantify the fleet performance, including operation costs, total
resupplied resources, and fleet readiness.
When the model is implemented for military Joint Tactical Transport System
(JTTS) mission, our results indicate that fleet modularity can reduce total
resource supplies without significant losses in fleet readiness. The benefits
of fleet modularity can also be amplified through a real-time optimized
operation strategy. To highlight the feasibility of fleet modularity, a
parametric study is performed to show the impacts from working capacity on
modular fleet performance. Finally, we provide practical suggestions of modular
vehicle designs based on the analysis and other possible usage.