Logical Time for Decentralized Control of Material Handling Systems

The fourth industrial revolution aims to transform production systems. In this work, Logical Time which is a control principle for distributed systems is transferred to material handling systems with decentralized control. The GridSorter, a modular sorter with grid-like structure, is chosen as showcase system. The system is proven to be deadlock-free and is robust against varying transport times. The time-window-based route reservation process is described as Iterative Deepening A*.