GridStore: A Puzzle-Based Storage System With Decentralized Control

Author

Gue, Kevin R. ; Furmans, K. ; Seibold, Z. ; Uludag, Onur

Author_Institution

Ind. & Syst. Eng., Auburn Univ., Auburn, AL, USA

Volume

11

Issue

2

fYear

2014

fDate

Apr-14

Firstpage

429

Lastpage

438

Abstract

We describe a high-density storage system for physical goods in which identical conveyor modules can be plugged together to store and retrieve unit-loads or small containers. Material movement conforms to the “puzzle architecture” found in popular board games such as the 15-puzzle and Rush Hour. Control of the system is decentralized, meaning that each module contains identical operating logic that directs its behavior based on local conditions and message passing. We prove the system deadlock-free and show its performance under a wide variety of operating configurations.

Keywords

containers; conveyors; decentralised control; storage automation; GridStore; Rush Hour; board games; containers; decentralized control system; high-density storage system; identical conveyor modules; identical operating logic; material movement; message passing; operating configurations; physical goods; puzzle architecture; puzzle-based storage system; system deadlock-free; unit-loads; Centralized control; Decentralized control; Materials; Materials handling; Message passing; Protocols; System recovery; Decentralized control; message passing; multi-agent systems; object oriented modeling; storage automation;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Automation Science and Engineering, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1545-5955

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TASE.2013.2278252

Filename

6601725