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An Optimization Task Scheduling Model for Multi-robot Systems in Intelligent Warehouses

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Abstract

Task allocation and path planning are commonly taken into consideration when utilizing multi-robot systems in intelligent warehouses. However, the importance of picking stations, which affects the efficiency of the system, is often ignored. To tackle this problem, this study has designed a novel scheduling model to improve the efficiency of the multi-robot system. Unlike the original scheduling model, the queuing time is taken into account in the newly designed scheduling model. Additionally, two approaches are applied in order to improve the designed model. Specifically, the balanced heuristic mechanism (BHM) is used to choose the optimal picking station to shorten the queuing time. The method of task reordering based on task correlation (TRBTC) is also adopted to reduce the travel cost. To verify the efficiency of this method, the proposed method is applied to the different task allocation schemes of intelligent warehouse systems and compared with the original model. Simulation results show that overall superior performance is achieved in the warehouse system.

Supported by the Key R&D program of Shanxi Province (International Cooperation) under Grant No. 201903D421048.

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Correspondence to Zhihua Cui .

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Jing, X., Cui, Z. (2022). An Optimization Task Scheduling Model for Multi-robot Systems in Intelligent Warehouses. In: Pan, L., Cui, Z., Cai, J., Li, L. (eds) Bio-Inspired Computing: Theories and Applications. BIC-TA 2021. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1565. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-1256-6_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-1256-6_1

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