This project focuses on the analysis of vehicle control in horizontal material handling systems where the vehicle capacity is more than one unit load. The primary concentration of this work is to extend vehicle routing and scheduling models to the vehicle control problem for multiload carriers in material handling. Two models have initially been identified as most closely resembling the problem described: the dynamic dial-a-ride model and the fixed routes model. Appropriate mathematical models will be formulated for analyzing the problem and solution methodologies will be developed based on these models. It is anticipated that heuristic procedures will be required due to the complexity of the vehicle routing problem. Such procedures will capture the objective criteria and the constraints observed in the mathematical models. Performance evaluations for the methodologies will include quantitative bounds on the objective function, empirical evaluations using benchmark data, and simulation analysis.
