This award is in the joint Engineering/Computer Information Science Engineering ENG/CISE Research Thrust in Intelligent Material Handling Systems. The objective is to develop an enabling environment for intelligent material handling systems. This environment will integrate, analysis and synthesis techniques from Operations Research, Artificial Intelligence, Controls Engineering, Geometry, Robotics and Vision and Parallel Computing into a seamless, extendable system for design and control of material handling systems. The development of such an environment requires that a number of fundamental problems in each of the areas mentioned above be solved or adapted to make them useful in material handling. Further, integration of results from these areas into a single system raises a number of questions involving communications, resources allocation and interfacing protocol etc. A proof-of-concept system demonstrating the concept of an intelligent material handling enabling environment (IMHEE) will be developed. This system will be configured to control material handling systems in two different domains: factory floors and building construction sites.
