Efficient Online Scheduling and Routing for Automated Guided Vehicles: Comparing a Novel Loop-Based Algorithm Against Existing Methods

Automated guided vehicles (AGVs) can be used to autonomously transport materials from point A to B without requiring any human intervention. This makes them an effective and flexible solution for industrial applications such as manufacturing, warehousing and logistics. However, scheduling and routing AGVs in a dynamic environment presents a challenging problem, particularly when multiple AGVs share the same space. Furthermore, real-world applications might require fast response times or necessitate the problem to be handled online. As described by Le-Anh and De Koster (2006), all jobs that need to be scheduled are known in advance in an offline scenario.