Efficient Online Scheduling and Routing for Automated Guided Vehicles: Comparing a Novel Loop-Based Algorithm Against Existing Methods

Automated guided vehicles (AGVs) are widely used in various industries, and scheduling and routing them in a conflict-free manner is crucial to their efficient operation. We propose a loop-based algorithm that solves the online, conflict-free scheduling and routing problem for AGVs. The proposed algorithm is compared against an exact method, a greedy heuristic and a metaheuristic. We experimentally show that this algorithm either outperforms the other algorithms or gets an equally good solution in less computing time.