Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company - Insurer Innovation Award 2024
KIVA system
1. COORDINATING HUNDREDS Automation and Control Seminar 1
OF COOPERATIVE,
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES IN
A WAREHOUSE
Dev Bahadur Poudel
Automation and Control Seminar
Jacobs University
Bremen
Monday, July
30, 2012
2. Structure of Presentation
2
Overview on Multi-Agent System
Multi Agent System in Warehouse
Kiva System in Warehouse
Automation and Control Seminar Monday, July 30, 2012
3. Autonomous Robot
3
Robots that can perform desired task in
unstructured environment without human
guidance.
Have some degree of autonomy
Have control over their internal state and their
behavior
Automation and Control Seminar Monday, July 30, 2012
4. Agents
4
Computer system that is capable of
independent(autonomous) action to satisfy
design objectives
Problem Solving entities
Situated in a particular environment (input
environment through sensors and act on
environment through effectors)
Automation and Control Seminar Monday, July 30, 2012
5. Multi-Agent System
5
Agent Oriented Approach to solve Complex
Problem
Consist of a number of agents interacting with
each other to accomplish the goal in a
common environment
Problem are decentralized to different agents
Decomposition of Knowledge and Expertise
Distributed Intelligence
Automation and Control Seminar Monday, July 30, 2012
6. Why and Where Multi-agents
6
Systems?
Decentralization of Problems and Knowledge
For Complex Control Systems
Increase the productivity and decrease the
cost
Reliability, Robust
Military Network-centric Operations
Search and Rescue
Transportation and Logistics
Now days used in Warehouse to increase the
efficiency
Automation and Control Seminar Monday, July 30, 2012
7. Warehouse Scenario
7
Goods-to- Customer
Automation and Control Seminar Monday, July 30, 2012
8. Traditional Automation in
8 Warehouse
Pickers(human) move around the Warehouse
Fetch products and return them to packing
station
Human have to look for the order items
Order items in Conveyors
Batch Processing
Time consuming
Automation and Control Seminar Monday, July 30, 2012
9. Modern Automation in
9
Warehouse
Orders’ item come in hand of picker like a
MAGIC!
Use of Autonomous agents
Agents search the order fetch to the human
Agents co-ordinate to achieve a system goal
Many orders can be fulfilled
Increases Productivity
Kiva System
Automation and Control Seminar Monday, July 30, 2012
10. Kiva System
10
State-of-the art for modern automation in
warehouse
Founded on better approach for order fulfillment
(goods to customers)
Uses Hundreds of autonomous mobile robots
Sophisticated control Software
Uses the concept of Distributed Intelligence
Founded in 2003 (Mick Mountz )
Fielded in 2006
Implements Distributed Intelligence
Automation and Control Seminar Monday, July 30, 2012
11. Resources
11
Inventory ( with dimensions and frequency)
Inventory Pods (pods can visit one or multiple
stations)
Bins (pods can have 1-1000 bins)
Order Pods
Parking space for pods
Robots
Picking Stations
Automation and Control Seminar Monday, July 30, 2012
12. Kiva System Layout
12
Green: Storage Area
Orange: Mobile Robots
Blue: Stations
Automation and Control Seminar Monday, July 30, 2012
13. MAS Architecture in
Warehouse(Kiva)
13
Agent 1 Job Manager
Inventory Station Drive Unit
Agent 2 Agent 3
Automation and Control Seminar Monday, July 30, 2012
14. Drive Unit Agent
14
Mobile Robots
Fetch the Inventory pod to the picking station
Take the Order pods to the shipping station
Transport the Inventory Pod to replenishment
Path Planning
Automation and Control Seminar Monday, July 30, 2012
15. 15
Inventory Station Agent(ISA)
Picking stations : Workers pick items
Replenishment stations: barcodes are
scanned and appropriate pod come to the
station
Report accomplishment of its tasks.
Equipped with computer that pick lights,
barcode scanners, laser pointers used to
identify the pick and put locations
Automation and Control Seminar Monday, July 30, 2012
16. Job Manager
16
Central Server System
Resource Allocation
Communicate with Warehouse Management
System
Receives customer orders that need to be
fulfilled
Assigns drives, pods, and stations to carry out
the tasks.
Automation and Control Seminar Monday, July 30, 2012
17. Kiva Robots and Pods
17
Automation and Control Seminar Monday, July 30, 2012
18. Kiva working Mechanism
18
JM receives orders and assign to stations to
fulfill
Robot(Drive Unit) carries the inventory pods
Inventory pods come to picking stations
Picking: Workers pick items and put in order
pod
Shipping : Order pod move for shipping after
fulfilling all the orders
Replenishment : Inventory pods go for
replenishment Automation and Control Seminar Monday, July 30, 2012
19. 19
Order fetch Configuration
Automation and Control Seminar Monday, July 30, 2012
20. Path Planning
20
Optimization of the path to fetch order from
storage to the station
A* Algorithm
Travelling Salesman Problem
Automation and Control Seminar Monday, July 30, 2012
21. 21
Resource Allocation Challenges
Objective: Optimizing the system(keep the
workers busy minimizing the robots and pods
used)
Which order to assign to which robot?
Which pod to pick up?
Where to keep the pod after order is fulfilled?
Which pod to send for replenishment?
Optimization(make all the robots and stations
busy)
Automation and Control Seminar Monday, July 30, 2012
22. Heuristic Technique for
22 Optimization
Order Allocation
1.Time to fulfill the order must be minimized
2. Inventories around the station and in
queue pods must be considered
Inventory Pod Selection
1.Nearer pods
2. Multiple items to be picked in one visit
Automation and Control Seminar Monday, July 30, 2012
23. Resource Allocation
23
Pod Storage Allocation:
1.Slow frequency pods kept backward
2.high frequency pods are kept nearer
Robot Allocation:
1.Pick More pods using less Robots
2.Decrease the Queue in stations
Replenishment Allocation:
1.Maximize the cubic utilization of the pods
2.Bin packing Problem
3.Create faster pods and slower pods
Automation and Control Seminar Monday, July 30, 2012
24. Advantages
24
Increase Productivity: double the output
Lower Cost: lower installation and operational
costs than traditional warehouse automation
systems
Location free replenishment : items can be
kept in any pods
Adaptive storage: Pods are store using
heuristic
Expandability :Add inventory pods and drive
units to increase throughput during peak2012
Automation and Control Seminar Monday, July 30,
season
25. Challenges
25
To the Computer Scientist
Development of an appropriate high level
software infrastructure/framework to support
the building of multi-agent systems
Efficient Algorithm for Optimization
Path Planning for robots
Resource Allocation
Coordinating Robots
Dynamic, Stochastic and hence Intractable
Automation and Control Seminar Monday, July 30, 2012
26. Kiva in Action
26
Automation and Control Seminar Monday, July 30, 2012
27. 27
Have a Nice Day!
Automation and Control Seminar Monday, July 30, 2012