Storage assignment optimization for fishbone robotic mobile fulfillment systems

Abstract

Robotic Mobile Fulfillment System (RMFS) affects the traditional scheduling problems heavily while operating a warehouse. This paper focuses on storage assignment optimization for Fishbone Robotic Mobile Fulfilment Systems (FRMFS). Based on analyzing operation characteristics of FRMFS, a storage assignment optimization model is proposed with the objectives of maximizing operation efficiency and balancing aisle workload. Adaptive Genetic Algorithm (AGA) is designed to solve the proposed model. To validate the effectiveness of AGA in terms of iteration and optimization rate, this paper designs a variety of scenarios with different task sizes and storage cells. AGA outperforms other four algorithm in terms of fitness value and convergence and has better convergence rate and stability. The experimental results also show the advancement of AGA in large size FRMFS. In conclusion, this paper proposes a storage assignment model for FRMFS to reduce goods movement and travel distance and improve the order picking efficiency.