A Loop Material Flow System Design for Automated Guided Vehicles

We develop an exact integer programming formulation to design a loop material flow system for unit-load automated guided vehicles. The model simultaneously determines both the design of the unidirectional loop flow pattern and the location of the pickup and delivery stations. The objective is to minimize the total loaded-vehicle trip distances. To solve the problem, we concentrate on developing a better formulation for the LP subproblem, preprocessing the problem, identifying the appropriate set of LP/IP routines, analyzing the mathematical properties of the problem, and developing an intelligent branch and bound solution procedure.

[1]  Gilbert Laporte,et al.  Some Applications of the Generalized Travelling Salesman Problem , 1996 .

[2]  Yavuz A. Bozer,et al.  Tandem Configurations for Automated Guided Vehicle Systems and the Analysis of Single Vehicle Loops , 1991 .

[3]  Thomas E. Vollmann,et al.  An Experimental Comparison of Techniques for the Assignment of Facilities to Locations , 1968, Oper. Res..

[4]  John J. Bartholdi,et al.  Decentralized Control of Automated Guided Vehicles on a Simple Loop , 1989 .

[5]  Gunter P. Sharp,et al.  An analytical method for configuring fixed-path, closed-loop material handling systems† , 1990 .

[6]  J. M. A. Tanchoco,et al.  Solution methods for the mathematical models of single-loop AGV systems , 1993 .

[7]  Panagiotis Kouvelis,et al.  Unidirectional Loop Network Layout Problem in Automated Manufacturing Systems , 1992, Oper. Res..

[8]  Pius J. Egbelu,et al.  Dynamic relative positioning of AGVs in a loop layout to minimize mean system response time , 1996 .

[9]  J. Tanchoco,et al.  Optimal flow path design of unidirectional AGV systems , 1990 .

[10]  Yavuz A. Bozer,et al.  Tandem configurations for AGV systems offer simplicity and flexibility , 1989 .

[11]  David Sinriech,et al.  OSL—optimal single-loop guide paths for AGVS , 1992 .

[12]  Pius J. Egbelu,et al.  Positioning of automated guided vehicles in a loop layout to improve response time , 1993 .

[13]  P. Banerjee,et al.  Facilities layout design optimization with single loop material flow path configuration , 1995 .

[14]  Panos Afentakis,et al.  A loop layout design problem for flexible manufacturing systems , 1989 .

[15]  J. M. A. Tanchoco,et al.  Flow path design for automated guided vehicle systems , 1987 .

[16]  R. A. Zemlin,et al.  Integer Programming Formulation of Traveling Salesman Problems , 1960, JACM.

[17]  William L. Maxwell,et al.  Design of Automatic Guided Vehicle Systems , 1982 .

[18]  G. Laporte,et al.  The block layout shortest loop design problem , 2000 .

[19]  J. M. A. Tanchoco,et al.  The centroid projection method for locating pick-up and delivery stations in single-loop AGV systems , 1992 .

[20]  George B. Dantzig,et al.  Solution of a Large-Scale Traveling-Salesman Problem , 1954, Oper. Res..

[21]  N. Tchernev,et al.  Impact of empty vehicle flow on optimal flow path design for unidirectional AGV systems , 1996 .

[22]  Pius J. Egbelu,et al.  Guide path design and location of load pick-up/drop-off points for an automated guided vehicle system , 1990 .

[23]  Yavuz A. Bozer,et al.  TRIP-BASED MATERIAL HANDLING SYSTEMS: THROUGHPUT CAPACITY ANALYSIS , 1994 .