Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Articles represent physical objects which are stored in the warehouse.
Each article is fully characterized by the following attributes:
b
1
∈
ATT
: Unique article identifier
b
2
∈
ATT
: Article type
b
3
∈
ATT
: Status
The status may be either
available
indicating that this article is
still available (e. g., for incoming orders) or
reserved
in which case
the article is already assigned to an order and no longer available.
It is assumed that each article requires a single cell for storage, i. e.,
no article spans more than one cell and one cell cannot be used for
storage of more than one article.
Micro-level: Worker
A worker may walk around in the warehouse and transport light
articles. A worker is assumed to occupy one cell no matter if he
carries an article or not. Furthermore, each worker is equipped with
the following knowledge:
Warehouse setup, i.e., each worker knows the exact placement of
storage areas, transportation areas and platforms.
As the workers may receive commands from the warehouse manager
(like 'Transport article a
1
from storage area (15
,
20) to platform
out
1
.'), each worker is able to store the last command given to him
in his internal knowledge base.
The behavior of a worker-agent is determined by its sensors and
effectors. Each worker-agent is equipped with the following two
sensors:
A
Perceive
-sensor allows a worker-agent to perceive its environment
and therefore reflects some kind of optical perception. For simplicity
(and as the required adaptations would just be rather technical), a
