Abstract—The agent computing paradigm is rapidly emerging
as one of the powerful technologies for the development of largescale
distributed systems to deal with the uncertainty in a dynamic
environment. The domain of traffic and transportation systems is
well suited for an agent-based approach because transportation
systems are usually geographically distributed in dynamic changing
environments. Our literature survey shows that the techniques
and methods resulting from the field of agent and multiagent systems
have been applied to many aspects of traffic and transportation
systems, including modeling and simulation, dynamic routing
and congestion management, and intelligent traffic control. This
paper examines an agent-based approach and its applications in
different modes of transportation, including roadway, railway, and
air transportation. This paper also addresses some critical issues in
developing agent-based traffic control and management systems,
such as interoperability, flexibility, and extendibility. Finally, several
future research directions toward the successful deployment
of agent technology in traffic and transportation systems are
discussed.
Index Terms—Agents, intelligent transportation systems (ITS),
mobile agent systems, multiagent systems (MAS).