Driven by the digital transformation required by Logistics 4.0, the use of automation in warehouses is constantly growing. In particular, robotic palletizers offer significant potential for optimizing warehouse operations, thanks to higher flexibility and throughput than traditional palletizing systems. Despite the availability of several solutions in the market, the optimal deployment of a robotic palletizer in warehouses is not straightforward: a design phase is needed to determine the most convenient configuration that ensures automatic palletizing is fully integrated into the warehouse processes. In this paper, we propose a simulation-based versatile tool for modeling and analysis purposes, aimed at supporting the design of a robotic palletizing cell in a bottom-up fashion. As a core methodology, we employ timed colored Petri nets, which allow - once the analysis on packing requirements and constraints is conducted - to rapidly model the system as a composition of basic subsystems, and implement alternative simulations to evaluate the corresponding performance and effectively benchmark the alternative configurations. The proposed approach is applied to a real case study, showing its effectiveness in identifying the solution that achieves a good compromise between the use of resources and the performance of warehouse operations.
Cavone, G., Stella, S., Scarabaggio, P., Carli, R., Lisi, S., Garavelli, A.C., et al. (2023). A Colored Petri Net Tool for the Design of Robotic Palletizing Cells. In 9th 2023 International Conference on Control, Decision and Information Technologies, CoDIT 2023 [10.1109/codit58514.2023.10284186].
A Colored Petri Net Tool for the Design of Robotic Palletizing Cells
Cavone, Graziana
;
2023-01-01
Abstract
Driven by the digital transformation required by Logistics 4.0, the use of automation in warehouses is constantly growing. In particular, robotic palletizers offer significant potential for optimizing warehouse operations, thanks to higher flexibility and throughput than traditional palletizing systems. Despite the availability of several solutions in the market, the optimal deployment of a robotic palletizer in warehouses is not straightforward: a design phase is needed to determine the most convenient configuration that ensures automatic palletizing is fully integrated into the warehouse processes. In this paper, we propose a simulation-based versatile tool for modeling and analysis purposes, aimed at supporting the design of a robotic palletizing cell in a bottom-up fashion. As a core methodology, we employ timed colored Petri nets, which allow - once the analysis on packing requirements and constraints is conducted - to rapidly model the system as a composition of basic subsystems, and implement alternative simulations to evaluate the corresponding performance and effectively benchmark the alternative configurations. The proposed approach is applied to a real case study, showing its effectiveness in identifying the solution that achieves a good compromise between the use of resources and the performance of warehouse operations.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
