Platform-based AS/RS for container storage

The ever-increasing demand on container port throughput has mounted the necessity of a more efficient container storage structure, the requirements of which apparently can be met by AS/RS because of its abilities of fully automating material handling and the potentials for delivering high performance. In this study, we present an AS/RS for container storage, develop the travel time models for the proposed system, and confirm its feasibility in terms of throughput performance. A pre-processing scheme for operation scheduling that significantly improves AS/RS throughput is proposed and evaluated. Additional constraints arising from the container size and weight on AS/RS design and scheduling are taken into considerations, which in effect leads to a platform-based AS/RS.