A Model-Based Intelligent Agent Approach for Supply Chain Transparency and Resilience

该奖项将通过提供新的方法来提高全球供应链的弹性和效率，使其能够迅速和主动地对意外中断做出反应，从而为国家繁荣做出贡献。供应链是所有商业企业的关键组成部分，正如新冠肺炎疫情所表明的那样，供应链效率必须与供应链应对重大中断的能力取得平衡。该项目将研究使用智能代理监控和运营供应链的模型，以代表从原材料供应商、中间生产商、装配商、分销商到最终用户的供应链组件。代理具有与其他代理进行通信、共享信息和协商的能力，以及使用这些信息在考虑到其他代理的状态和目标的情况下实时做出本地决策的能力。预计这项研究将以更低的供应链管理成本改善运营，并提高面对大规模中断的弹性。该项目将建立数据仪表盘和开放源码软件，并将广泛传播，以支持供应链风险管理。研究活动与教育和外展活动相结合，包括参与底特律地区大学预科工程计划。该奖项将开发、验证和校准基于云的智能代理建模体系结构，以表征复杂供应链中的信息、通信和谈判。具体的研究任务包括：描述将用智能体建模的供应链组件集、它们的性能目标和控制活动；每个智能体用来与其他智能体谈判的通信链路和信息集；针对不同智能体自身的风险态度和不确定性特征，为不同智能体制定优化其行动的方法；指定供应链中的扰动类别，并制定机制以及时检测这些扰动。预计该框架将通过对供应链管理中中断的特征和影响以及基于代理的技术的要求和限制的新理解，改进现代供应链管理。该项目将提供一个新的分布式控制框架，具有建模灵活性、通信透明度和应对供应链中断的能力。该方法将通过汽车制造领域的真实案例研究进行验证。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award will contribute to the national prosperity by providing new methods to improve resilience and efficiency of global supply chains, enabling them to respond to unexpected disruptions promptly and proactively. Supply chains are critical components of all commercial enterprises, and as the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated, supply chain efficiency must be balanced with the ability of supply chains to respond to major disruptions. This project will investigate models for monitoring and operating supply chains using intelligent agents to represent supply chain components, from raw material suppliers, intermediate producers, assemblers, distributors, to end users. The agents have the ability to communicate, share information and negotiate with other agents, as well as to use this information to make local decisions in real time with other agent's status and objectives in mind. The research is expected to lead towards improved operations with lower costs in supply chain management and increased resilience in the face of large-scale disruptions. The project will build data dashboards and open-source software that will be widely disseminated to support supply-chain risk management. The research activities are integrated with educational and outreach activities, including participation in the Detroit Area Pre-College Engineering Program. This award will develop, validate, and calibrate a cloud-based intelligent agent modeling architecture to characterize information, communication, and negotiation in complex supply chains. Specific research tasks include: characterization of the set of supply chain components that will be modeled with agents, their performance objectives and control activities; construction of communication links and information sets that each agent uses to negotiate with other agents; development of methods for different agents to optimize their actions given their own risk attitudes and uncertainty characterization; and specification of the classes of disturbances in supply chains and development of mechanisms to detect them promptly. The framework is expected to improve modern supply chain management through a new understanding of the characteristics and impact of disruptions and of the requirements and limitations of agent-based technology in supply chain management. The project will deliver a new distributed control framework with modeling flexibility, communication transparency, and the ability to respond to supply chain disruptions. The approach will be validated through a real-world case study in automotive manufacturing.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.