Multi-Agent Tour Planning With Queue-Aware Deadline Scheduling
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Modern inventory systems face inefficiencies in resource utilization, leading to lower throughput, long response times, and high costs due to the challenges of handling large numbers of diverse inventory requests, with conventional tour generation methods failing to account for travel and queuing delays.
Innovation Solution
A tour generation feature that uses service provider computers to determine optimized tours for inventory holders and autonomous mobile robots, considering travel attributes and queuing delays, by iteratively applying a large neighborhood search algorithm with destroy heuristics to ensure timely completion of tasks.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional tour generation methods are used, then implementation is simple, but travel and queuing delays are not accounted for resulting in poor system performance
Solution Approach 1:
The tour generation system dynamically adjusts tour routes and sequences based on real-time inventory holder locations, task priorities, and estimated travel/queuing delays. The system continuously optimizes tour assignments rather than using static conventional methods, allowing adaptation to changing system conditions to maintain reliable performance.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary calculations of travel delays and queuing times before finalizing tour assignments. By estimating these delays in advance and incorporating them into tour optimization, the system proactively prevents delays rather than reacting to them, improving overall system reliability.
2Productivity
If the number of inventory holders and tasks is increased to handle more requests, then system capacity increases, but resource utilization becomes inefficient leading to longer response times
Solution Approach 1:
The system optimizes tour parameters including route sequences, visit priorities, and resource allocations to maximize throughput while minimizing response times. By dynamically adjusting these parameters based on system state, the system handles increased capacity without proportionally increasing delays.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses feedback from inventory holder locations, task completion status, and delay measurements to continuously refine tour assignments. This closed-loop control ensures that as system capacity increases, the system adapts its resource allocation to maintain efficient response times.
3Ease of manufacture
If incremental changes are made to system capacity, then infrastructure changes are minimized, but resource utilization efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically optimizes resource utilization based on current system capacity and workload, allowing incremental capacity changes to be efficiently utilized. By continuously adjusting tour assignments and resource allocation, the system maintains high productivity regardless of whether capacity was increased incrementally or significantly.
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments are described for implementing a tour generation feature for completing tasks within a facility of an inventory management system. Coordinates for stations, starting locations of inventory holders, and rest locations of the inventory holders of the facility may be obtained. A set of tasks may be determined for each station based on an inventory item requirement associated with each station. A priority order for a subset of inventory holders may be determined based on priority characteristics associated with each inventory holder. Tours for the subset of inventory holders may be determined based on the set of tasks, the coordinates, and travel attributes for each inventory holder. The tours may be modified by iteratively invoking a large neighborhood search algorithm that uses destroy heuristics. Previously determined tours for other subsets of inventory holders may be updated using the modified tours for the subset of inventory holders.