Solving the storage location assignment of large-scale automated warehouse based on dynamic vortex search algorithm

Abstract

This paper establishes the mathematical model for Storage Location Assignment (SLA) problem in large-scale automated warehouses by combining three objectives: efficiency, shelf stability, and stacker load balancing. Along with a novel repair strategy to handle the complex constraints of large-scale problems. Additionally, a coding method and solution approach suitable for practical application scenarios are developed. In order to solve large-scale SLA problem, an improved vortex search algorithm is proposed based on attraction operation in flow field, dimension-by-dimension dynamic radius and leadership decision-making mechanism (FDVSA). In the experimental part, the algorithm effectiveness experiment of FDVSA was first conducted using the large-scale global optimization test sets IEEE congress on evolutionary computation 2010 and 2013 (CEC2010, CEC2013). The results show that: (1) Compared with other comparison algorithms, the comprehensive average optimization rate of FDVSA in CEC2010 and CEC2013 is 88 % and 78 %, respectively. (2) The experimental results of FDVSA showed that each improvement strategy has advantages in dealing with large-scale problems. (3) The post-hoc analysis showed that there are significant differences between FDVSA and other comparison algorithms, and FDVSA is significantly better. Finally, FDVSA and other comparison algorithms are solved on three different scale and complexity of SLA cases. The results show that: (1) FDVSA has significant advantages in solving large-scale SLA problem, and the comprehensive average optimization rate is 19 %. (2) The convergence curve and boxplot showed that FDVSA has good convergence speed and solving stability. (3) The effectiveness of the repair strategy was verified by experiments in the large-scale SLA problems.