Relative pre-positioning of storage/retrieval machines in automated storage/retrieval system to minimize expected system respone time

摘要

This paper is focused on the control problem of determining the dwell point of an idle storage/retrieval (S/R) machine in an automated S/R system to improve the overall system service level as measured by the turnaround time of requests to the system. The emphasis of the paper is on the minimization of the expected response time over all retrieval and storage requests executed by the system. The model presented is developed under the operating condition that each machine serves several dedicated aisles of the system.