Towards an Ontology of Automated Warehousing Systems

Abstract

With the growth of e-commerce and the increas-ing complexity of logistics processes, the need for automatedwarehouse systems is growing. However, their planning is oftenbased on empirical data or complex simulations. Analyticalapproaches, particularly standardized methods, have hardly beenestablished. This work aims to develop a systematic description asa methodology for modeling automated warehouse systems. Thebasis is the functional division into the areas of storage, transport,and transfer, which are represented by the storage, handling,and I/O modules. By decoupling the functions, systems can bedescribed in a structured manner independent of technologyand layout. Coupling conditions, rules, and layout specificationssupplement the description and enable flexible modeling. Theapplicability is demonstrated using an AS/R system. It is shownhow geometric and functional properties can be applied to thesystematic framework. The proposed framework allows a con-sistent qualitative description and provides a robust foundationfor future automated throughput calculations.