An Integrated Model Predictive Scheme for Baggage-Handling Systems: Routing, Line Balancing, and Empty-Cart Management

This brief proposes a new strategy for integrated control of baggage-handling systems (BHS). Three main control issues in BHS, namely, routing and scheduling, empty-cart management, and line balancing, are identified and a combined control approach based on model predictive control is proposed to tackle these issues in an optimal way. It is shown that the control approach can be formulated as a linear programming problem, which can be solved very efficiently, and hence the proposed approach can be extended to large-scale BHS. We illustrate the applicability and performance of the proposed approach by a case study, and we compare the results with the state-of-the-art method currently used for BHS.