| Theme | Industry 4.0, Automation, Automated guided vehicles |
|---|---|
| Project title | Development of a heuristic modeling approach to study the efficiency of cellular AGVs in intralogistics (ZellFTF) |
| Project duration | 01.11.2022 – 31.10.2024 |
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| Press release |
A continuously growing number of product variants is presenting companies in the manufacturing and logistics sectors with increasing challenges. This increases the demands on transport logistics and the flexibility of the transport systems used.
One approach to making the transport process more flexible is the use of cellular transport units, which can be formed from autonomously operating driverless transport vehicles (AGVs), among other things. The individual AGVs are designed as modular units that can be variably interconnected depending on the requirements and size of the products to be transported. Cellular AGVs offer, among other things, the advantage that they can transport products of different sizes and are easily scalable compared to inflexible systems by increasing the number of vehicles used in the system.
The aim of the ZellFTF research project is to investigate the economic and logistical efficiency of using cellular transport units compared to conventional approaches (e.g. transport with forklifts). To achieve this, the research project will formulate a mathematical optimization model for the vehicle routing problem (VRP) and implement a heuristic to solve the model. Afterwards, a simulation model will be created to perform a scenario study to validate the approach.
Publications about the project
As the number of product variants continues to grow, the need for flexibility in intralogistics is becoming increasingly apparent. One potential solution to this challenge is the use of cellular automated guided vehicles, which can be variably interconnected depending on the size of the product to be transported. This article presents an optimization model for solving a vehicle routing problem for cellular automated guided vehicles. Furthermore, a recursive method is presented that determines an optimal transport sequence based on the solution of the model. The optimization model is implemented in a specially developed model environment and solved for a dynamic, illustrative use case. Subsequently, logistical target variables are evaluated in order to assess the solution of the optimization model. The exemplary application of the optimization model demonstrates the feasibility of modeling cellular transportation with automated guided vehicles and evaluating its performance based on logistical target variables.
AGV, cellular transport units, optimization model, simulation, logistical target values
A continuously growing number of product variants increases the demands on the flexibility of intralogistics transportation. One way to achieve greater flexibility is the use of cellular automated guided vehicles, which can be variably interconnected depending on the size of the product to be transported. This article explains the characteristics of cellular automated guided vehicles and the relationships between influencing variables of the cellular transport system and economic and logistical target variables.
Intralogistics, automated guided vehicles, cellular transport units
