RAWSim-O: A Simulation Framework for Robotic Mobile Fulfillment Systems

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

  • Marius Merschformann
  • Lin Xie
  • Hanyi Li
This paper deals with a new type of warehousing system, Robotic Mobile Fulfillment Systems (RMFS). In such systems, robots are sent to carry storage units, so-called “pods,” from the inventory and bring them to human operators working at stations. At the stations, the items are picked according to customers’ orders. There exist new decision problems in such systems, for example, the reallocation of pods after their visits at work stations or the selection of pods to fulfill orders. In order to analyze decision strategies for these decision problems and relations between them, we develop a simulation framework called “RAWSim-O” in this paper. Moreover, we show a real-world application of our simulation framework by integrating simple robot prototypes based on vacuum cleaning robots.
Original languageEnglish
Article number8
JournalLogistics Research
Volume11
Issue number1
Number of pages11
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 12.2018

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2018.

    Research areas

  • Engineering - Demonstration, Parts-to-Picker Systems, Robotic Mobile Fulfillment Systems, Simulation, Warehousing Systems