UltraSwarm: A Further Step Towards a Flock of Miniature Helicopters

We describe further progress towards the development of a MAV (micro aerial vehicle) designed as an enabling tool to investigate aerial flocking. Our research focuses on the use of low cost off the shelf vehicles and sensors to enable fast prototyping and to reduce development costs. Details on the design of the embedded electronics and the modification of the chosen toy helicopter are presented, and the technique used for state estimation is described. The fusion of inertial data through an unscented Kalman filter is used to estimate the helicopter’s state, and this forms the main input to the control system. Since no detailed dynamic model of the helicopter in use is available, a method is proposed for automated system identification, and for subsequent controller design based on artificial evolution. Preliminary results obtained with a dynamic simulator of a helicopter are reported, along with some encouraging results for tackling the problem of flocking

Robotized Warehouse Systems: Developments and Research Opportunities

Robotized handling systems are increasingly applied in distribution centers. They require little space, provide flexibility in managing varying demand requirements, and are able to work 24/7. This makes them particularly fit for e-commerce operations. This paper reviews new categories of robotized handling systems, such as the shuttle-based storage and retrieval systems, shuttle-based compact storage systems, and robotic mobile fulfillment systems. For each system, we categorize the literature in three groups: system analysis, design optimization, and operations planning and control. Our focus is to identify the research issue and OR modeling methodology adopted to analyze the problem. We find that many new robotic systems and applications have hardly been studied in academic literature, despite their increasing use in practice. Due to unique system features (such as autonomous control, networked and dynamic operation), new models and methods are needed to address the design and operational control challenges for such systems, in particular, for the integration of subsystems. Integrated robotized warehouse systems will form the next category of warehouses. All vital warehouse design, planning and control logic such as methods to design layout, storage and order picking system selection, storage slotting, order batching, picker routing, and picker to order assignment will have to be revisited for new robotized warehouses

Disrupting Complex Systems with Emerging Technologies: A Study on United States Airport Operations

The number of United States domestic commercial flight passengers are growing every year, which means the number of people checking-in, dropping off their bags, and going through TSA within airports is equally growing. With the increasing number of passengers and aging airports, there are several areas of pain points within airports where passengers hit a bottleneck due to the current systems that airports have in place. There are three main areas that we are going to reference. First the check-in process, where customers have to get their tickets, input identification information, and check-in for their flight. Second, baggage-drop off, where customers get their baggage weighed and tagged. Lastly, is Transport Security Administration (TSA). This is where consumers get their carry-on bags scanned as well as their person. In each of these areas, there are some levels of inconvenience imposed on the customer by the current system. With technological advancements being used in other industries, the goal of this thesis is to look at what existing technologies can be modified and used within airport operations to reduce the long lines that customers face every time they travel

A Novel Autonomous Vehicle-based Storage and Retrieval System with Movable Lifts

This paper presents a novel autonomous vehicle-based storage and retrieval system with movable lifts (AVS/RS/ML) as an alternative automated warehousing technology to tier-captive shuttle-based storage and retrieval systems (SBS/RS). The proposed system aims to provide a cost-effective, highly efficient, and adaptable solution for warehouse operations utilizing automated guided vehicles (AGVs) capable of travelling both inside and outside the warehouse. We simulate and analyse the system\u27s performance based on its initial investment cost, throughput capacity, and average utilization of AGVs and movable lifts (MLs) under different warehouse designs

Stochastic Modeling of Unloading and Loading Operations at a Container Terminal using Automated Lifting Vehicles

With growing worldwide trade, container terminals have grown in number and size. Many new terminals are now automated to increase operational efficiency. The key focus is on improving seaside processes, where a distinction can be made between single quay crane operations (all quay cranes are either loading or unloading containers) and overlapping quay crane operations (some quay cranes are loading while others are unloading containers). From existing studies, it is not clear if the design insights obtained from analyzing single operations, such as optimal stack layout, are consistent with the insights obtained from analyzing overlapping operations. In this paper, we develop new integrated stochastic models for analyzing the performance of overlapping loading and unloading operations that capture the complex stochastic interactions among quayside, vehicle, and stackside processes. Using these integrated models, we are able to show that that there are stack layout configurations that are robust for both single (either loading or unloading) and for overlapping (both loading and unloading) operations

Improving just-in-time delivery performance of IoT-enabled flexible manufacturing systems with AGV based material transportation

Autonomous guided vehicles (AGVs) are driverless material handling systems used for transportation of pallets and line side supply of materials to provide flexibility and agility in shop-floor logistics. Scheduling of shop-floor logistics in such systems is a challenging task due to their complex nature associated with the multiple part types and alternate material transfer routings. This paper presents a decision support system capable of supporting shop-floor decision-making activities during the event of manufacturing disruptions by automatically adjusting both AGV and machine schedules in Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMSs). The proposed system uses discrete event simulation (DES) models enhanced by the Internet-of-Things (IoT) enabled digital integration and employs a nonlinear mixed integer programming Genetic Algorithm (GA) to find near-optimal production schedules prioritising the just-in-time (JIT) material delivery performance and energy efficiency of the material transportation. The performance of the proposed system is tested on the Integrated Manufacturing and Logistics (IML) demonstrator at WMG, University of Warwick. The results showed that the developed system can find the near-optimal solutions for production schedules subjected to production anomalies in a negligible time, thereby supporting shop-floor decision-making activities effectively and rapidly