A tool for time variance and energy related performance estimations in a shuttle-based storage and retrieval system

Abstract

The aim of this study is to present a tool that can calculate critical performance measures of different Shuttle-Based Storage and Retrieval System (SBS/RS) designs. Specifically our aim is to develop an analytical model-based tool that can estimate the mean and variance of travel time of lifts and shuttles as well as the mean amount of energy consumption and energy regeneration per transaction for a pre-defined SBS/RS design. The methodology illustrated in this paper can also be utilized for any system having a straight discrete travel pattern with equal distance stop points. We are motivated in this study by a relatively new automated storage and retrieval technology SBS/RS. By the provided tool one can evaluate these systems’ performance promptly by changing the input design parameters (e.g. discrete travel lengths velocity of vehicles acceleration/deceleration of vehicles number of tiers number of bays etc.) of these systems. The analytical models used in the tool are verified via simulation for several SBS/RS design scenarios. As a result it is found that the proposed tool produces highly accurate results specifically less than 1% Absolute Percentage Error from the simulation results. © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.