Research On The Task Allocation Problem Of Multi-robot In The Smart Warehouse

The smart warehouse system based on "cargo-to-person" is a new type of distribution center warehousing management mode. In the warehousing management system, the working efficiency is improved to a certain extent in complex picking work which is handled by warehouse robots instead of manual labor. The task allocation problem of multi-robot in the smart warehouse(TAMRSW) based on cargo-to-person is investigated. And we partition the TAMRSW problem into the task allocation problem of abundant robots(TAPAR) and the task allocation problem of insufficient robots(TAPIR) which are studied respectively. The main content of this paper are as follows:Firstly, the domestic and foreign research statue of the task allocation problem of multi-robot and the task allocation methods of multi-robot were reviewed. And we find that there are no researches to study respectively on the TAPAR problem and the TAPIR problem by now. Then we put forward the research direction and research content of this paper.Secondly, the mathematical model of order batching problem is formulated according to the similarity of goods type between orders in a period of time. And the heuristic algorithm for quickly solving problem is designed.Thirdly, the TAPAR problem and the TAPIR problem are researched respectively. The TAPAR problem can be converted into an imbalanced allocation problem of more warehouse robots and less tasks. In order to minimize the total operation cost, the mathematical model of imbalanced allocation problem is established, and the heuristic algorithm based on the greedy thought is designed. For the TAPIR problem, the model of task grouping problem is established firstly according to the similarity between tasks in the order which will be picked, thus, all the tasks of the order that will be picked are partitioned into several groups, in which the number of group equals to the number of warehouse robots; then, according to the distance between two tasks in each group, taking the minimum related cost that each warehouse robot completes all of the tasks in the group as the target, the model of optimal scheduling problem of each warehouse robot completing the tasks of each group is established, and the heuristic algorithm based on the adjacent algorithm thought is designed; finally, according to the total related cost matrix of all the warehouse robots completing all the tasks of each group in one order, the mathematical model of task balanced allocation problem between warehouse robots and task groups is established, and then Hungarian Algorithm is used to obtain the optimal task allocation schemes.At last, the simulation and analysis are done on the 100 real orders data of online bookstore A from 0 a.m. to 24 p.m. of one day. The 100 orders are divided into 17 batches according to the item similarity between orders. For the 17 batches orders, the task allocation schemes and total operation cost of the TAPAR problem and TAPIR problem are obtained respectively. The feasibility and effectiveness of the model and algorithm in the paper are verified.The models and algorithms of the paper can be a theoretical basis for designing smart warehouse management information system.