Immunologic control framework for automated material handling

Abstract

An Artificial Immune System (AIS) paradigm, which is an engineering analogue to the human immune system, is adopted to deliver the performance and robustness required by a multi-vehicle based delivery system in an automated warehouse. AIS offers a number of profound features and solutions, including the ability to detect changes, coordinate vehicle activities for goals achievement and adapt to new information encountered, to the control of such distributed material handling systems. By adopting some of these mechanisms of AIS adapted to specify and implement the behaviour of warehouse delivery vehicles, an architecture that defines the control framework is developed. This control framework improves the efficiency of a multi-agent system as demonstrated by computer simulations presented. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2003.