Title: Performance modelling of autonomous vehicle storage and retrieval systems with generally distributed service times

Authors: Li Zhang; Ananth Krishnamurthy; Charles J. Malmborg; Sunderesh S. Heragu

Addresses: Consumer Finance Division, Royal Bank of Scotland Citizens Bank, 1000 Lafayette Boulevard, Bridgeport, CT 06604, USA. ' Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, ME 3258, University of Wisconsin, 1513 University Avenue, Madison, WI 53706, USA. ' Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, CII 5015, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 Eighth Street, Troy, NY 12180-3590, USA. ' Department of Industrial Engineering, J B Speed School of Engineering, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292, USA

Abstract: This paper proposes extensions of system conceptualisation models for autonomous vehicle storage and retrieval systems (AVS/RSs) to deal with non-exponential lift service times when the number of lifts and vehicles are both design variables. These extensions are based on an adaptation of a computational algorithm for estimating the probability distribution of queue lengths in capacitated, non-Poisson queuing systems. Simulation-based validation studies suggest that the proposed model extensions yield estimation errors comparable to those observed in earlier studies restricted to cases where the number of vehicle and lifts is treated as a single design variable. [Received: 20 February 2010; Revised: 8 June 2010; Accepted: 9 June 2010]

Keywords: autonomous vehicle storage retrieval systems; AVS/RS; random storage; non-Poisson queuing approximations; autonomous vehicles; simulation.

DOI: 10.1504/EJIE.2011.042741

European Journal of Industrial Engineering, 2011 Vol.5 No.4, pp.448 - 470

Published online: 22 Oct 2014 *

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