The impact of collaborative robot speed on the throughput performance in an order-picking warehouse

Öz

Order-picking operations are one of the most costly and labor-intensive activities in warehouses. In recent years, collaborative order-picking systems have been used increasingly in warehouses to reduce order pickers’ workloads and increase their performances. In a collaborative order-picking system, the collaborative robot can be ridden by an order picker or move autonomously alongside the order picker walking between pick locations. This collaborative system raises research questions, such as how much the collaborative robot speed affects the throughput performance of order-picking operations and how this effect changes for different pick-list sizes. Therefore, this study aims to develop an integer programming model to investigate the impact of the robot speed on the throughput capacity in an order-picking warehouse using collaborative robots and to solve the model developed for various pick-list sizes. The objective of the optimization model is to minimize the total tour time covering all locations in a pick-list. Moreover, the optimal strategy to walk along or ride the cobot for the order-picker is determined, depending on the distance between the pick locations. Considering the speed increase leads to accidents, a time penalty for the speed increase is added to the optimization model. Eventually, Monte Carlo simulation is used to generate pick-lists randomly, and the optimization model is solved by using Dynamic Programming. As a result of the study, it is shown that the throughput performance can be increased up to %60 by optimizing the robot speed depending on the pick-list size.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Pick-list size
• Collaborative robot
• Optimal routing
• Optimal collaboration strategy
• Optimal collaborative robot speed.

Bir sipariş toplama deposunda iş birlikçi robot hızının çıktı performansı üzerindeki etkisi

Öz

Sipariş toplama operasyonları depolarda en fazla maliyet ve iş yükü oluşturan aktivitelerden birisidir. Sipariş toplayıcıların iş yükünün azaltılması ve performanslarının yükseltilmesi için son yıllarda depolarda kolaboratif sipariş toplama sistemleri daha fazla kullanılmaktadır. Kolaboratif bir sipariş toplama sisteminde, kolaboratif robot bir sipariş toplayıcı tarafından sürülebilmekte veya sipariş toplama noktaları arasında yürüyen sipariş toplayıcının yanı sıra otonom olarak hareket edebilmektedir. Bu kolaboratif sistem, kolaboratif robot hızının sipariş toplama operasyonlarının çıktı performansına etkisi ne kadardır? ve bu etki farklı toplama liste büyüklükleri için nasıl değişmektedir? gibi sorular ortaya çıkarmaktadır. Dolayısıyla, bu çalışma kolaboratif robot kullanılan bir sipariş toplama deposunda robot hızının çıktı performansına etkisini araştırmak amacıyla bir tamsayılı programlama modeli oluşturmaktayı ve çeşitli sipariş listesi büyüklükleri için geliştirilen modeli çözmeyi hedeflemektedir. Optimizasyon modelinin amacı bir toplama listesindeki tüm lokasyonları kapsayan tur süresini minimize etmektir. Ayrıca, sipariş lokasyonları arasındaki mesafeye bağlı olarak sipariş toplayıcının kolaboratif robotun yanında yürümesi veya kolaboratif robotu sürmesi için optimal strateji belirlenmiştir. Dahası, hız artışının kazalara yol açtığı dikkate alınarak optimizasyon modeline hız artışı için bir zaman cezası eklenmiştir. Son olarak, rastgele toplama listeleri oluşturmak için Monte Carlo simülasyonu kullanılmış ve Dinamik Programlama kullanılarak optimizasyon modeli çözülmüştür. Çalışmanın sonucunda, toplama listesi büyüklüğüne bağlı olarak robot hızın optimize edilmesiyle çıktı performansının %60'a kadar artırılabileceği gösterilmiştir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Toplama listesi büyüklüğü
• Kolaboratif robot
• Optimal rotalama
• Optimal iş birliği stratejisi
• Optimal kolaboratif robot hızı

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