Design and implementation of optimal algorithm for shelves handling based on the change of return position of movable shelves

Abstract

Abstract A shelf‐to‐person picking system based on automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) is developed in the mobile shelf warehouse, which can meet the needs of multi batches, small volume and multi variety picking. In this system, the efficiency of picking is affected by Storage location allocation, optimal combination of picking orders, optimization of handling shelves and AGVs scheduling. This article establishes a mathematical model according to the shortest walking distance of AGV in view of the situation that the return position of the shelf can be changed. In this article, a hybrid intelligent algorithm is designed, and its effectiveness is verified by numerical examples. At the same time, the heuristic algorithm and intelligent algorithm were compared in two cases, and the range of intelligent algorithm parameters was analyzed to verify the stability and effectiveness of the algorithm.

Keywords

• AGVs
• change of return position
• hybrid intelligent algorithm
• shelf handling optimization
• shelf‐to‐person