AGV Scheduling Optimization for Medical Waste Sorting System

Abstract

The dramatic increase in medical waste has put a severe strain on sorting operations. Traditional manual order picking is extremely susceptible to infection spread among workers and picking errors, while automated medical waste sorting systems can handle large volumes of medical waste efficiently and reliably. This paper investigates the optimization problem in the automated medical waste sorting system by considering the operational flow of medical waste. For this purpose, a mixed-integer programming model is developed to optimize the assignment among medical waste, presorting stations, and AGVs. An effective variable neighborhood search based on dynamic programming algorithm is proposed, and extensive numerical experiments are conducted. It is found that the proposed algorithm can efficiently solve the optimization problem, and the sensitivity analysis gives recommendations for the speed setting of the conveyor.

Optimization of AGV Sorting Systems in Pharmaceutical Distribution: A Two-Stage Package Assignment and Simulation Approach

“…In the context of healthcare and waste management, a significant contribution was made by He et al [12] in developing an optimization model for processing medical waste in automated sorting systems. The proposed model uses mixed integer programming to assign medical waste categories to presorting stations and schedule AGVs for transportation tasks.…”

Autonomous Vehicles for Healthcare Applications: A Review on Mobile Robotic Systems and Drones in Hospital and Clinical Environments

“…Manual Semi-autonomous Autonomous Most articles in the Semi-Autonomous or Autonomous categories describe the use of drones, while few (only 18%) deal with autonomous driving vehicles in healthcare. These include analyses of automated devices for managing hospital logistics [5], such as medical waste sorting systems [21] or devices for automated transportation of medical goods [22,23]. A paper describing the use of drones, if not clearly validated by UAV design or application, is categorized as both Semi-Autonomous and Autonomous, as these vehicles can encompass both forms of movement.…”

Medical Waste Treatment Technologies for Energy, Fuels, and Materials Production: A Review

“…Similarly, Govindan et al [98] developed a bi-objective mixed-integer linear programming model for MWM during the COVID-19 pandemic, by simultaneously minimizing the total costs and of the population's exposure to pollution risks. Additionally, He et al [14] used the operational flow of MW to optimize the automated MW sorting system problem, using a mixed-integer programming model for the MW assignment, presorting stations, and automated guided vehicles optimization.…”

“…They also investigated the practical implications [13]. Moreover, He et al [14] optimized the problem of the automated MW sorting system by taking into account the operational flow of MW. They developed a mixed-integer programming model for the optimization of the MW assignment, presorting stations, and automated guided vehicles.…”