Optimizing Cooperative Pallet Loading Robots: A Mixed Integer Approach

We consider a system with a metering conveyor that feeds a palletizing machine. Multiple robots cooperatively move packages to obtain a desired final pallet layout. We address the problem of finding the optimal sequence of manipulations and packages positions on the conveyor that allow to maximize production. Our main contribution is the reformulation of this operation as a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) problem, that we solve with a metaheuristic that exploits a standard commercial solver. We also present some numerical experiments on randomly generated problems.