A Survey of Autonomous Control Algorithms by Means of Adapted Vehicle Routing Problems

The German Collaborative Research Centre 637 “Autonomous Cooperating Logistic Processes – A Paradigm Shift and its Limitations”, develops, among other things, autonomous routing algorithms for transport networks. The discussed algorithm is designed to match goods and vehicles and to continuously make route decisions within a dynamic transport network. Here, each object makes its own decisions. It is called Distributed Logistics Routing Protocol – DLRP. Because of obvious similarities to the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP), one question arises for both practitioners and researchers: How efficient is this protocol compared to traditional, established algorithms or in comparison to the optimal solution? This article tries to answer this question, which appears simple on the first and challenging on the second view.