Application of Negotiation Algorithm to Exclusive Control of Conveyor Machines for Automated Warehouses

Abstract

We propose a task-allocation procedure with preplanning and a resource-re-allocation method by negotiation for path-management of multiple carry robots(agents) in automated warehouses. The task-allocation to agents and the path-management as resource-allocation are key factors to determine the performance of the warehouse. We assume these two factors as separated independent problems, and apply preplanning and negotiation method, respectively. The proposed methods are evaluated by simulation experiments with several problem setting. The results of experiments shows that the proposed method can improve the performance of the warehouse and usage of agents with reasonable computational complexity.