Dynamic partition strategy of warehouse area based on workload balance

Abstract

In order to improve the efficiency of warehouse outbound delivery and avoid local congestion of AGVs, this paper considers both strategies of AGVs path optimization and tasks balancing in the warehouse. In this paper, the A * algorithm is improved. Different estimation functions are used in different areas to more accurately depict the distance relationship between each point pair, and efficiently calculate the shortest feasible path from each storage location to each picking station. At the same time, the outbound tasks are planned reasonably. By establishing a 0-1 integer programming model and using Gurobi to solve it, tasks are allocated regularly to each picking station in the warehouse to maintain the workload balance among the picking areas. The experimental results show that the above strategies reduce the maximum working time of each picking area from 1793t seconds to 1511t seconds, and effectively reduce the total mileage of AGVs and the probability of AGV local congestion.