A Multi-Robot Task Allocation and Path Planning Method for the Robotic Mobile Fulfillment System

With the popularization and application of Robotic Mobile Fulfillment System (RMFS), more and more problems related to it have attracted attention from researchers. This paper considers a multi-robot task allocation and path planning problem in RMFS and proposes a hybrid method by combining a Genetic algorithm (GA) with a Hierarchical Cooperative A * (HCA*) algorithm. The GA generates several task sequences as targets for path planning, and the HCA* successfully finds a collision-free path for several mobile robots while considering the optimization of the makespan and flowtime of the entire order. For the narrow aisle in storge areas, we allow the mobile robots to wait in place and provide a simple heuristic method for HCA* to arrange priorities for mobile robots. The results of the simulation experiments confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method.