Travel time analysis of Stewart-Gough Platform in Automated Storage and Retrieval System

Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (AS/RS´s) are warehousing systems that are used for storage and retrieval of products in both distribution and production environments. This study presents the impact of new design aspects of automated storage/retrieval systems with special emphasis on travel time models. In the aim to find energy saving solutions as well as to improve the efficiency rate of AS/RS´s, a new design of AS/RS´s has been developed using a parallel wire-based Stewart-Gough platform (parallel wire robot) to serve as storage and retrieval (S/R) machine instead of the conventional S/R machine. This innovated system is named Stewart-Gough Platform based Automated Storage and Retrieval System (SGP-AS/RS´s). In this study, the impact of the new AS/RS´s design on cycle travel time will be investigated by determining the expected travel time for single command. A numerical case study for the travel time analysis based on mini-load storage and retrieval system has been presented. The results illustrate significant reductions in SGP´s travel times in automated warehousing systems in comparison with the conventional S/R machine.