Autonomous Transport Robots in Baggage Handling Systems

Autonomous Transport Robots in Baggage Handling Systems: A study on the use of autonomous individual transport robots in baggage handling systems at medium-sized regional airports operating in a point-to-point network

Silven, Alisa (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering; TU Delft Transport Engineering and Logistics)

Negenborn, Rudy (mentor)
van Duin, Ron (mentor)
Pang, Yusong (mentor)
Verbeek, R.J.D. (mentor)

Delft University of Technology

Transport, Infrastructure and Logistics

2018-04-06

This report describes a research performed to investigate in which way it is feasible to dynamically alter the floor plan and desired capacity of airport baggage handling systems by making use of autonomous individual transport robots. By researching the state of the art of both conventional baggage handling systems and transport robot systems, a new baggage handling solution called the Baggage Robot Concept is proposed. A simulation model of this Baggage Robot Concept is developed to evaluate the performance of this concept in the sorting process of a baggage handling system at medium-sized regional airports. The research identified that the most important design elements for the Baggage Robot Concept are the number of robots and the floor layout configuration. The Baggage Robot Concept turns out to be a feasible concept. An important design choice that is identified in the research is the trade-off between manoeuvre space of robots and the location of charging and storage positions. This study has been a first exploration in integrating autonomous robot systems in baggage handling systems, contributing to future proof and cost efficient operations.

Baggage Handling System
Autonomous Transport Robots
Agent-Based Modelling and Simulation
Sorting Process

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:a3a238fc-7c20-40af-add6-41ae40000f7d

Student theses

master thesis

© 2018 Alisa Silven