INESC TEC Publications

In April 2021 the Mari4_YARD project partner INESC TEC presented the paper “A* Based Routing and Scheduling Modules for Multiple AGVs in an Industrial Scenario” on Robotics, open access Journals and Books.

This paper proposes a time-based algorithm to dynamically control a fleet of Autonomous Guided Vehicles (AGVs) in an automatic warehouse scenario. A multi-AGV based logistic system is typically associated with two fundamental problems, critical for its overall performance: the AGV’s route planning for collision and deadlock avoidance; and the task scheduling to determine which vehicle should transport which load. Several heuristic functions can be used according to the application. The INESC TEC approach includes a routing algorithm based on the A* heuristic search (TEA*—Time Enhanced A*) to generate free-collisions paths and a scheduling module to improve the results of the routing algorithm. These modules work cooperatively to provide an efficient task execution time considering as basis the routing algorithm information.

For further information regarding Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science NESC TEC check its website: https://www.inesctec.pt/en