More Shuttles, Less Cost: Energy Efficient Planning for Scalable High-Density Warehouse Environments

Abstract

We propose planning strategies for a shuttle-based warehousing system. Within this system, goods are not only transported by, but also stored on shuttles. This allows the simultaneous motion of all goods without preparation time. We exploit these properties to improve both space- and energy efficiency compared to conventional storage systems while maintaining fast access to all goods. We present a framework to manage the shuttles in a very high density environment, allowing efficient in- and output, storage, and sequencing. The proposed framework is conflict-free, space- and energy efficient and its practical applicability is demonstrated in a simulative analysis based on a real-world problem. In our sample application holding 1950 shuttles we achieve storage densities of approximately 88% while maintaining efficient access to all goods.