A Conflict-Reducing Path Planning Algorithm in Automated Warehouses

Abstract

With the development of modern logistics industry, automated warehouses are becoming more and more widely used. An automated guided vehicle (AGV) is often used to carry goods in warehouse. Under specific limitations of the road layout, AGVs are prone to conflict when moving. According to the layout characteristics of automated warehouses, this paper proposes a conflict-reducing path planning algorithm, which is an improvement of A-star algorithm. The conflict cost and turn cost are introduced to the algorithm to reduce the conflict probability and the number of turns of paths. Through simulation comparison, it is verified that the algorithm can reduce the probability of conflicts among AGVs and improve the overall efficiency of multi-AGV systems.