A Framework for the Automated and Optimal Design of Vertical Lift Modules
提出一个自动化框架，基于库存清单优化垂直升降模块的托盘类型、数量和物品分配，考虑物理、制造和人体工程约束，并通过意大利制造商的真实数据验证。
To this day, tasks like planning and managing warehouses remain complex. Automated storage and retrieval systems have enhanced warehousing efficiency, yet designing them optimally is still challenging, despite their importance for the efficient operation of the warehouse. This article aims to present a novel framework for automating the optimal design of vertical lift modules (VLMs), focusing on tray types, quantities, and item-tray sector assignments, based on a specified inventory list. The approach accounts for VLM’s physical, manufacturing, and ergonomic constraints to ensure a manufacturable system design. To manage computational complexity, the size of the mixed-integer problem is reduced through an exact clustering of items, sectors, and layouts. The proposed framework is tested through numerical simulations using real data from an Italian VLM manufacturer.