ECOTRUCK: An agent system for paper recycling

Abstract

Recycling has been gaining ground, thanks to the recent progress made in the related technology. However, a limiting factor to its wide adoption, is the lack of modern tools for managing the collection of recyclable resources. In this paper, we present EcoTruck, a management system for the collection of recyclable paper products. EcoTruck is modelled as a multi-agent system and its implementation employs Erlang, a distribution-oriented declarative language. The system aims to automate communication and cooperation of parties involved in the collection process, as well as optimise vehicle routing. The latter have the effect of minimising vehicle travel distances and subsequently lowering transportation costs. By speeding up the overall recycling process, the system could increase the service throughput, eventually introducing recycling methods to a larger audience. © 2011 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing.