Generic control of material handling systems

Material handling systems (MHSs) are in general complex installations that raise challenging design and control problems. In the literature, design and control problems have received a lot of attention within distinct business sectors or systems, but primarily from a system’s user perspective. Much less attention is paid to generic (i.e., sector independent) control architectures and modeling approaches across these various sectors, which is in the first place interesting for MHS suppliers. In this thesis, the focus is on the perspective of an MHS supplier, who produces a broad range of MHSs for distinct sectors, for which achieving design and control synergy is vital to facilitate, among other issues, design and maintenance. Customized planning and control approaches for MHSs have significant drawbacks for both MHS users and MHS suppliers. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to design, in collaboration with a major industrial partner, a generic and modular planning and control architecture for MHSs, while not compromising the performance of customized control approaches. To this end, the thesis provides generic modeling techniques, a better understanding of the similarities and differences between distinct business sectors where MHSs are used, and draws the boundaries of generic control

Improving the performance of sorter systems by scheduling inbound containers

This paper addresses the inbound containers scheduling problem for automated sorter systems in two different industrial sectors: parcel & postal sorting and baggage handling. We build on existing literature, particularly on the dynamic load balancing algorithm designed for the parcel hub scheduling problem, and adapt the existing algorithm to include travel times on sorters. Then, we show how to apply the scheduling algorithms in baggage handling and propose two extensions for scheduling containers in baggage handling. Finally, we conduct computational experiments to analyze the best scheduling approaches for each industrial sector, operational scenario, and system layout. One of the extensions that we propose for the baggage handling sector is the delayability extension, which significantly improves the performance of scheduling approaches

Generic planning and control of automated material handling systems

This paper discusses the problem to design a generic planning and control architecture for utomated material handling systems (AMHSs). We illustrate the relevance of this research direction, and then address three different market sectors where AMHSs are used, i.e., baggage handling, distribution, and parcel & postal. The research in this paper is heavily motivated by a collaboration between the authors and a major global company supplying AMHSs. We analyze requirements from practice for a generic control architecture, and then review the literature to investigate whether these practical requirements have been met. From this confrontation of theory with practice, we conclude that many practical issues are not yet covered in the current literature. We take the initiative to define a research direction in concrete terms, pinpoint problems to work on, and propose an agenda for future research. Moreover, we take a step to propose a concept control architecture

A generic material flow control model applied in two industrial sectors

This paper addresses the problem of generic planning and control of automated material handling systems (AMHSs). We build upon previous work to provide a proof of concept for generic control of AMHSs in different domains. We present a generic control architecture for AMHSs, and apply this architecture to a material flow model with storage and sorter systems. We set up our model to be applicable to AMHSs in two different industrial sectors: Baggage Handling and Distribution. We report on performance indicators and analyze how far we can control the two industries generically in terms of software implementation. To this end, we present an impressive degree of 84% commonality in the control software code. Moreover, we highlight deviations from the generic control and give insight to control procedures that deviate from the generic code. A generic architecture that optimally exploits synergy between the different market sectors may reduce design time and costs considerably for system suppliers acting in both industries, while finding a common ground to model AMHSs in these different sectors also forms a scientific challeng