AUTOMETED STORAGE, RETRIVAL AND CAROUSEL SYSTEM IN
FMS
Sanjay M. Savaliya
R.C.P.I.T. Shirpur, Dhule
T.E (Mechanical)
E-mail:Sanjaysavaliya118@yahoo.co.in
ABSTRACT
FMS is not only a manufacturing technology, but it
is a philosophy. "System" is the key word. Philosophically,
FMS incorporates a system view of manufacturing. The buzz
word for today’s manufacturer is "agility". An agile
manufacturer is one who is the fastest to the market, operates
with the lowest total cost and has the greatest ability to
"delight" its customers. One of the important constituent of the
FMS is automated storage and retrieval system. The paper
addresses the through improvement possible with the use of a
dual shuttle automated storage and retrieval system. With the
use of such a system, travel between times in a dual command
cycle is virtually eliminated resulting in a large throughput
improvement. The dual shuttle system is then extended to
perform an equivalent of two dual commands in one cycle in a
quadruple command mode (QC). A heuristic that sequences
retrievals to minimize travel time in QC mode is developed.
The paper also addresses the Monte Carlo simulation results
which are provided for evaluating the heuristic's performance
and show that it performs well, achieving large throughput
improvements compared with that of the dual command cycle
operating under the nearest neighbor retrieval sequencing
heuristic.
Keywords: Automated Storage/Retrieval Systems Design;
Automated Storage/Retrieval Systems Operation; Material
Handling Systems;
INTRODUCTION
Automated storage system is one of the important part of
FMS. It is mainly classified in two types.
(1) Carousel System: A carousel storage system consists of a
series of bins or baskets suspended from an over head chain
conveyor that revolves around a long oval rail system. The
purpose of chain conveyor is to position bins at a load/unload
station at the end of the oval. The carousels are automated by
using transfer mechanisms at the load/unload station to move
loads into and from the carousel. Carousel storage system
provide a relatively high throughput and are often an attractive
alternative to a mini load AS/RS in a manufacturing
operations, where its relatively low cost, and high reliability
are recognized. Typical applications of carousel system
include: (1) Storage and retrieval operations. (2) Transport and
accumulation. (3) Work in process.
Krunal H. Patel
R.C.P.I.T. Shirpur, Dhule
T.E (Mechanical)
E-mail:krunal_138@yahoo.co.in
(2) Automated storage/retrieval systems (AS/RS): An
Automated storage/retrieval systems (AS/RS) can be defined
as a storage system that performs storage and retrieval
operations with speed and accuracy under a defined degree of
automation. Automated storage/retrieval systems (AS/RS) are
widely used in warehousing and manufacturing applications.
A typical unit load AS/RS consists of storage racks, S/R
machines, link conveyors, and input/output (I/O) stations. An
important system performance measure is the throughput
capacity of the system. The throughput capacity for a single
aisle is the inverse of the mean transaction time, which is the
expected amount of time required for the S/R machine to store
and/or retrieve a unit load. The service time for a transaction
includes both S/R machine travel time and pickup/deposit
time. This time typically depends on the configuration of the
storage rack and the S/R machine specifications.
The mean transaction time has been estimated for single
command and dual command cycles for randomized storage
and retrieval with different I/O configurations. Reducing the
mean transaction time is critical for increasing the throughput
of the AS/RS. One alternative is to reduce the dimensions of
the rack which will decrease the mean transaction time.
However, this reduction requires having more aisles to satisfy
the same storage space requirements; hence the solution may
not be cost effective. Intelligently sequencing the retrievals
can reduce unproductive travel between time when the S/R
machine is traveling empty and thereby increase the
throughput. The maximum possible improvement in
throughput if travel between is eliminated for an AS/RS that is
throughput bound and operates in dual command mode. In
essence, this means that if the S/R machine travels in a single
command path but performs both a storage and a retrieval
operation, the above throughput improvement could be
obtained. With the existing S/R machine design, achieving this
maximum throughput improvement is virtually impossible.
ALTERNATIVE S/R MACHINE OPERATION
A typical unit-load AS/RS has an S/R machine operating in
each aisle of the system. The S/R machine has a mast which is
supported at the floor and the ceiling and travels horizontally
within the aisle. Connected to this mast is a shuttle mechanism
that carries the unit load and moves vertically up and down the
mast. The shuttle mechanism also transfers loads in and out of
storage locations in the rack. Figure 1 provides an illustration
of the single shuttle S/R machine.
 Figure 2. Dual Command Travel Paths of S/R and R/S
Machines

R/S MACHINE OPERATION

Consider an S/R machine with two shuttle mechanisms instead

Figure 1. Single Shuttle S/R Machine Design
A typical single shuttle AS/RS can perform a single command
cycle or a dual command cycle. A single command cycle
consists of either a storage or a retrieval. For a storage, the
time consists of the time to pickup the load at the I/O point,
travel to the storage/retrieval point, deposit the load at that
point, and return to the I/O point. The time for a retrieval is
developed similarly.
of one. This new S/R machine could now carry two loads
simultaneously. Each shuttle mechanism could operate
independently of the other, so that individual loads can still be
stored and retrieved. An illustration of the dual shuttle S/R
machine is shown in Figure 3. This new S/R machine would
operate as described below.

A dual command cycle involves both a storage and a retrieval

in the same cycle. The cycle time involves the time to pickup
the load at the I/O point, travel to the storage location, place
the load in the rack, travel empty to the retrieval location,
retrieve a load, return to the I/O point, and deposit the load at
the I/O point.

If we critically analyze the dual command cycle of the S/R

machine (shown by the solid line in Figure 2), a potential open
location for a future storage is created when a retrieval is
performed. Furthermore, if both a retrieval and a storage are
performed at the same point, the travel between time (TB) is
eliminated, and the travel time will be equal to the single
command travel time. With the existing AS/RS design, this
mode of operation is not possible; therefore, an alternative to
the S/R machine, a dual shuttle R/S machine, is proposed.

Figure 3. Dual Shuttle S/R Machine Design

The S/R machine picks up the item to be stored from the I/O
point, loads it into the first shuttle, and moves to the retrieval
location (as opposed to an open location in a regular AS/RS
dual command operation). After reaching the retrieval
location, the second shuttle is positioned to pickup the item to
be retrieved. After retrieval, the S/R machine positions the
first shuttle and deposits the load. The S/R machine then
returns to the I/O point. The operation can easily be seen as a
single command operation plus a small travel time for
repositioning the S/R machine between the retrieval and
storage (as well as the additional pickup and deposit time
associated with the second load). Therefore, the S/R machine
now operates as an R/S machine performing a retrieval first
then a storage in a dual command cycle. Since the R/S
machine has two shuttles, the position of the shuttles has a role
in the operation of the system. The two alternative shuttle
configurations are the vertical shuttle design illustrated in
Figure 3 and the horizontal shuttle design where the shuttles Figure 4. S/R Machine Path Performing Four Operations at
and hence the loads would sit side by side between the masts Four Locations.
of the S/R machine. With two shuttles, the R/S machine is able
to perform a dual command cycle at one location in the rack.
This operation is accomplished by first retrieving the load onto
the empty shuttle, transferring the second shuttle into position,
and storing the load into the empty location in the rack.
However, the choice of shuttle configuration does not impact
the analysis in this paper. To perform these operations, the R/S
machine must move the second shuttle into position after the
first shuttle has completed the retrieval. Due to the small
distance involved, the R/S machine will use a slower creep
speed for positioning, but this travel time is generally small.
Furthermore, an amount of creep time is usually included in
the pickup and deposit time to account for this required
positioning. A second design characteristic is that additional
clearance beyond the first and last row and column of the rack
must be provided for over travel of the R/S machine to
accommodate both shuttle mechanisms.
Figure 5. S/R Machine Path Performing Four Operations At
Three Locations.
DUAL SHUTTLE S/R SYSTEMS:

The new design of the S/R machine has two shuttles and
therefore could be operated as a dual shuttle system: carrying
two loads and depositing them, retrieving two loads, and
returning to the I/O point to deliver them as shown in Figure 4.
The above operation can be performed by storing and
retrieving the loads at four different locations. Therefore, the
travel time would consist of the time for a single command
travel plus three travel between times. To more efficiently
perform the 4 operations, a retrieval and storage performed at
one location is interspersed with a dual command operation.
This mode of operation, termed the quadruple command (QC)
cycle, eliminates one travel between and is more efficient than
the previous mode mentioned above (see Figure 5). The QC
cycle can be performed with storages at randomized locations
and retrievals processed in a first-come-first-served (FCFS)
manner. However, by intelligently sequencing the retrieval
list, the travel time in performing the four operations can be
significantly reduced. This type of analysis was used to
improve the throughput of a single load AS/RS.
In the next section, we discuss the minimum perimeter
heuristic, which satisfies these characteristics, and develop
CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD HEURISTIC
• A good heuristic should efficiently group the triple
such that the total travel time is minimized.
• A good heuristic should sequence the visits of the
S/R machine to the 3 locations such that there is no
cross-over of the S/R machine. That is, the same path
should not be crossed twice as shown in Figure 6.
The non-optimal path is shown in dotted lines for
reference.
• A good heuristic should exhibit good dynamic
behavior; that is, it should perform consistently over
time. During dynamic analysis of the AS/RS
operation, the average travel times for a quadruple
command cycle should be consistently the same.
upper and lower bounds on the expected quadruple command [3] Garey, M. and D.S. Johnson, Computers and
travel time. Intractability: A Guide to the Theory of Computing, Freeman
Press, San Francisco, CA, 1979.

[4] Han, M.H., L.F. McGinnis, J.S. Shieh, and J.A. White,
"On Sequencing Retrievals In An Automated
Storage/Retrieval System," IIE Transactions, March 1987, 56-
66.

[5] A.A.Keserla, B.A. Peters, "An Analysis of Dual Shuttle

Automated Storage/Retrieval Systems,” Texas A&M
University, College Station. US

Figure 6. S/R Machine Path With and Without Cross-Over

CONCLUSIONS

This paper performs an analysis of dual shuttle automated

storage and retrieval systems. Several contributions have been
made including the following.

• Throughput improvements in the range of 40-45%

can be obtained using the quadruple command cycle
relative to dual command cycles with a single shuttle
system.
• With the dual shuttle design, travel between is
virtually eliminated for a dual command cycle.

The dual shuttle system shows promise for situations requiring

high throughput. The main disadvantage with the new design
is the extra cost of the S/R machine. An economic evaluation
is needed to determine if it is appropriate for a particular
situation. However, based on throughput performance, the
dual shuttle design appears promising. The concept of dual
shuttle systems can also be extended to other material
handling systems, such as rotary rack carousels.

REFERENCES

[1] Bozer, Y.A. and J.A. White, "Travel-Time Models for

Automated Storage/Retrieval Systems," IIE Transactions, Vol.
16, No. 4, 1984, 329-338.

[2] Elsayed, E.A. and O.I. Unal, "Order Batching Algorithms

and Travel Time Estimation for Automated Storage/Retrieval
Systems," International Journal of Production Research, Vol.
27, No. 7, 1989, 1097-1114.