Issue: 2024/Vol.34/No.4, Pages 141-155
GRAPH MODELS FOR IDENTIFYING ROBOT-PACKABLE PATTERNS OF PALLET LOADING
Krzysztof Pieńkosz
Cite as: K. Pieńkosz. Graph models for identifying robot-packable patterns of pallet loading. Operations Research and Decisions 2024: 34(4), 141-155. DOI 10.37190/ord240409
Abstract
In the logistics processes of trade business, goods delivered from warehouses to retailers are often transported on pallets. The paper concerns the issue of using a robot for automatic palletizing. In order to put an item in a given place on a partially loaded pallet, the robot must have free access to that place, i.e., the place must not be covered. A graph model and a formalized method for determining the sequence of putting goods on a pallet is proposed to avoid such collisions. It is also shown that not every packing pattern can be loaded by a robot. However, some pallet loading approaches have been identified that always guarantee a feasible robot packing.
Keywords: distributor’s pallet loading problem, robot packing, aggregated precedence graphs, extended topological sorting
Received: 14 November 2023 Accepted: 19 October2024
Published online: 19 December 2024