Sizing of a fleet of cooperative and reconfigurable robots for the transport of heterogeneous loads

Abstract

We consider a fleet of elementary robots that can be connected in different ways to transport loads of different types. For instance, a single robot can transport a small load and the association of two robots can either transport a large load or two small loads. We seek to determine the number of robots necessary to transport a set of loads in a given time interval, at minimum cost. The cost is function of the number of robots and of the distance travelled by robots. The fleet sizing problem can be formulated by an integer linear problem. In the special case of two types of loads and two configurations, closed-form expressions for the minimum number of robots can be derived. Finally, we show how reconfigurability can allow to diminish the number of required robots.