An auction-based approach for the coordination of vehicles in automated warehouse systems

Automated warehouse systems play a key role in manufacturing systems and are currently controlled using hierarchical and centralized control architectures. The Interface system between the picking and storage area represents the most critical subsystem in automated warehouse systems and needs breakdown robustness and scalability. These requirements suggests the development of decentralized control solutions. However, the development of effective decentralized control solutions for these systems, which requires the coordination of vehicles moving along a monodimensional guide-path, is still a complex task. At this aim, an agent based approach using a sealed-bid auction mechanism is proposed in this paper.