Operation Management Framework Recovery of a Failed Autonomous-Steerable-Vehicle Storage and Retrieval System

An autonomous-steerable-vehicle storage and retrieval system is derived from the traditional crane-based automated storage and retrieval system, performing higher space utilization than the latter and keeping high degree automation. In this system, several autonomous steerable vehicles move orderly at the same time to store or retrieve unit loads, which requires the structure of the rail network satisfying a series of safeness constraints. If some equipments of the system fail (such as rail deformed, vehicle broken down or lifter jamming), the structure of the rail network would be damaged, which leads to the operation management framework of the system cannot work. In this paper, the changes of the network due to the equipment fails of the system are analyzed, and the methods to recover the operation management framework of the system are discussed. In the methods, rebuilding the trunk rail cycle and degrading cut edge rails are employed to repair the structure of the rail network, which recover the operation management framework of the failed system, avoiding the system collapse.