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A parallel algorithm for multi-AGV systems

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Abstract

Automated guided vehicles are widely used in various applications, especially in manufacturing. In this paper, we present a novel parallel algorithm for multi-AGV systems. The overall structure is composed of three parts: task assignment, path planning, and vehicle navigation. According to the priorities of AGVs, a greedy method is introduced to assign jobs. For path planning, a mixed-integer programming model of a multi-AGV system is formulated, which can be transformed into a series of sub-problems under certain conditions. Then, an improved routing method with a penalty item is adopted to generate the optimal paths of AGVs. To avoid collisions between vehicles, a simple and effective control method based on resource locking is proposed under the premise of parallelization. Furthermore, we design the experiments according to the warehousing systems. Various practical simulations are performed to illustrate the efficiency and robustness of the new algorithm.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Scientific and Engineering Computing, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China

    Dingding Yu & Xianliang Hu

  2. Institute of Scientific and Engineering Computing, with Institute of Statistics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China

    Kewei Liang

  3. The College of Information, Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, 200234, China

    Jun Ying

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  1. Dingding Yu
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  2. Xianliang Hu
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  3. Kewei Liang
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  4. Jun Ying
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Correspondence to Kewei Liang.

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Yu, D., Hu, X., Liang, K. et al. A parallel algorithm for multi-AGV systems. J Ambient Intell Human Comput 13, 2309–2323 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12652-021-02987-3

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