Scheduling Multiple AGVs with Dynamic Time-windows for Smart Indoor Parking Lot

We herein build a smart parking system for large-scale underground parking lot in China, and deal with scheduling problems for multiple automatic guided vehicles (AGVs). In previous studies, multiple AGVs usually were scheduled in warehouse system, workshop system, etc. There was little report about AGVs in smart parking. In underground parking lot, designing maximum layout of parking space led to limited and double pathway for AGVs. Therefore, we proposed a dynamic time-window based on scheduling method (DTWS for short). In our DTWS, each AGV can dynamically adjust the path according to a time w indow, and thus implement the conflict-free pathway of AGVs. Finally, the experimental results showed that the our method solved the scheduling problems such as deadlock of multiple AGVs, and our parking system had an improved performance.