# Exploring Decentralized Warehouse Management Using Large Language Models: A Proof of Concept
## 3 System Architecture
### Protocol Layer
#### Decision Process
If either condition is met, the agent determines that additional storage is needed to prevent service disruptions. Once the need for storage is identified, the agent proceeds to prepare a direct offer. The direct offer \(O_{\text{direct}}=(t_{\text{start}},\ t_{\text{end}},\ p,\ t_{\text{expiry}})\) is formulated with the aim of minimizing costs and ensuring continuity. The start time \(t_{\text{start}}\) is set to the end time of the last scheduled service \(t_{\text{end}_{\text{last}}}\) or the end time \(t_{\text{end}_{ij}}\) of the service before a detected gap. The end time \(t_{\text{end}}\) is  
Figure 3: Package agent decision flow chart. determined based on the desired storage duration \(D_{\text{desired}}\) or set to the start time \(t_{\text{start}_{ij+1}}\) of the next scheduled service to fill a gap. The proposed price \(p\) is set to minimize costs while being acceptable to warehouse agents, considering budget constraints and market rates. The offer expiry time \(t_{\text{expiry}}\) is set to encourage timely responses from warehouse agents. By following these steps, the package agent proactively manages its storage needs, ensuring continuous storage and minimizing costs in alignment with its objective function. Warehouse Agent Design  
A warehouse agent operates autonomously to maximize revenue from storage services while efficiently managing its available capacity. The agent relies on perceptual data (inputs) to make informed decisions and has a set of actions (outputs) available to achieve its objectives. **Perceptual Data**  
The perceptual data \(D_{\text{perceptual}_{j}}\) for warehouse agent \(j\) are defined as shown in Equation (35):  
\[D_{\text{perceptual}_{j}}=(S_{j},\;O_{\text{direct}_{j}},\;O_{\text{pool}}) \tag{35}\]  
where (\(S_{j}=\{s_{j1},\;s_{j2},\;\ldots,\;s_{jn}\}\)) is a set of scheduled services that contains all the storage services already scheduled by the warehouse agent, (\(O_{\text{direct}_{j}}=\{o_{\text{direct}_{j}},\;o_{\text{direct}_{j}},\;\ldots,\;o_{ \text{direct}_{jn}}\}\)) is a set of direct offers that contains the offers received directly from package agents, and (\(O_{\text{pool}_{j}}=\{o_{\text{pool}_{j}},\;o_{\text{pool}_{j}},\;\ldots\}\)) is a set of pool offers that contains the offers in the capacity pool, including those forwarded by other warehouse agents and by warehouse agent \(j\) itself. These perceptual data are fundamental for the warehouse agent's decision-making, enabling it to evaluate incoming offers, manage its existing storage services, and potentially forward offers to other agents in the network. **Action space**  
The warehouse agent's action space \(A_{j}\) encompasses all possible actions that the agent can perform, as shown in Equation (36):  
\[A_{j}=\{\text{AcceptDirectOffer, AcceptPoolOffer, RejectDirectOffer, ForwardDirectOffer}\} \tag{36}\]  
The AcceptDirectOffer action is used when the agent agrees to provide the storage service as requested in the direct offer, signaling acceptance to the package or other warehouse agents. The AcceptPoolOffer signals the acceptance of a direct offer forwarded through the capacity pool. The RejectDirectOffer action communicates that the agent is not able or willing to accept the direct offer, without altering its current schedule or capacity. The ForwardDirectOffer action is used when the warehouse agent decides to forward the direct offer to the capacity pool, potentially with an added fee, allowing other warehouse agents to consider it. These actions serve as the outputs of the agent's decision process, facilitating interaction with the network while keeping the internal decision-making separate, which will be discussed in the next section. **Decision processes**  
The warehouse agent operates autonomously to maximize revenue from storage services and efficiently manage its available capacity. The agent fulfills two primary roles within the decentralized warehousing system: one as a provider of storage services and the other as a trader of offers in the capacity pool.