Autonomous Vehicle Routing Around Restricted Warehouse Areas
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current autonomous vehicle routing systems face inefficiencies in warehouses due to areas that are closed to travel, such as loft areas, narrow aisles, and crowded spaces, requiring pickers to depart from the vehicle and remember pick locations, leading to increased time and effort.
Innovation Solution
A dynamic autonomous vehicle routing system that revises and reconfigures routes to guide pickers through impassable areas, using location tracking and electronic devices to direct pickers and optimize rendezvous locations, allowing pickers to meet the vehicle at more efficient locations, minimizing walking time and improving productivity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If autonomous vehicles navigate through all warehouse areas including restricted zones, then pick rate and productivity increase, but vehicle travel time and complexity increase due to navigating crowded areas, narrow aisles, and loft areas
Solution Approach 1:
The warehouse is segmented into autonomous vehicle accessible areas and picker accessible areas. Restricted zones (loft areas, narrow aisles, crowded spaces) are designated as picker-only zones, allowing autonomous vehicles to operate efficiently in open areas while pickers handle restricted zones, thus improving overall productivity without increasing vehicle travel time.
Solution Approach 2:
Pickers act as intermediaries who collect products from restricted areas that autonomous vehicles cannot access and transfer them to autonomous vehicles at designated transfer points. This mediator approach allows the system to utilize both autonomous vehicles for efficient transport and pickers for accessing restricted zones, improving pick rate without forcing vehicles into time-consuming restricted areas.
2Adaptability or versatility
If pickers depart from autonomous vehicles to collect products in restricted areas, then access to all product locations is enabled, but picker workload and time consumption increase due to remembering pick locations and returning to vehicles
Solution Approach 1:
The system provides pickers with preliminary information about restricted area product locations, quantities, and transfer points before they depart from autonomous vehicles. This advance information reduces picker cognitive load and time consumption by eliminating the need to remember pick locations, while still enabling access to all product locations including restricted areas.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements real-time feedback mechanisms that track picker locations, collected products, and autonomous vehicle positions. This feedback allows the system to dynamically adjust pick routes and optimize transfer points, reducing picker workload by providing guidance on where to collect products and when to return to vehicles, while maintaining versatile access to all warehouse areas.
3Area of stationary object
If autonomous vehicles operate in crowded areas and narrow aisles, then complete warehouse coverage is achieved, but routing complexity and traffic congestion increase
Solution Approach 1:
The warehouse routing system is segmented into autonomous vehicle zones and picker zones. Restricted areas (narrow aisles, crowded spaces, loft areas) are designated as picker zones, while open areas are autonomous vehicle zones. This segmentation reduces routing complexity for autonomous vehicles by eliminating the need to navigate complex restricted areas, while still achieving complete warehouse coverage through coordinated picker operations.
Solution Approach 2:
Pickers serve as intermediaries who access products in restricted areas that autonomous vehicles cannot reach due to routing complexity. This approach allows the system to maintain simple autonomous vehicle routing in open areas while still achieving complete warehouse coverage through picker-mediated access to narrow aisles and crowded spaces.
Data Source
Figure 1A
Figure 1B
Figure 2A
AI summary
Disclosed are system and methods for dynamically routing pickers and autonomous vehicles to avoid areas closed to travel by the autonomous vehicles within a warehouse. A processor in communication with an autonomous vehicle and an electronic device operated by a user (e.g., handheld device) may, in response to detecting that the electronic device diverges from a path of the autonomous vehicle, provide, for display on the electronic device, information about the product. The processor may then determine a rendezvous location for the autonomous vehicle based on a location of the product, instruct the autonomous vehicle to navigate to the rendezvous location and transmit the rendezvous location to the electronic device.