{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,1]],"date-time":"2026-04-01T20:00:41Z","timestamp":1775073641694,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":23,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"11","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,10,26]],"date-time":"2023-10-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1698278400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"European Regional Development Fund and Greece","award":["\u039a\u039c\u03a16-0292520"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["\u039a\u039c\u03a16-0292520"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Future Internet"],"abstract":"<jats:p>In the ever-evolving landscape of warehousing, the integration of unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) has profoundly revolutionized operational efficiency. Despite this advancement, a key determinant of UGV productivity remains its energy management and battery placement strategies. While many studies explored optimizing the pathways within warehouses and determining ideal power station locales, there remains a gap in addressing the dynamic needs of energy-efficient UGVs operating in tandem. The current literature largely focuses on static designs, often overlooking the challenges of multi-UGV scenarios. This paper introduces a novel algorithm based on affinity propagation (AP) for smart battery and charging station placement in modern warehouses. The idea of the proposed algorithm is to divide the initial area into multiple sub-areas based on their traffic, and then identify the optimal battery location within each sub-area. A salient feature of this algorithm is its adeptness at determining the most strategic battery station placements, emphasizing uninterrupted operations and minimized downtimes. Through extensive evaluations in a synthesized realistic setting, our results underscore the algorithm\u2019s proficiency in devising enhanced solutions within feasible time constraints, paving the way for more energy-efficient and cohesive UGV-driven warehouse systems.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/fi15110353","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,10,26]],"date-time":"2023-10-26T06:20:16Z","timestamp":1698301216000},"page":"353","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Improving the Efficiency of Modern Warehouses Using Smart Battery Placement"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1437-1326","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nikolaos","family":"Baras","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Western Macedonia, 50100 Kozani, Greece"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9826-6944","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Antonios","family":"Chatzisavvas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Western Macedonia, 50100 Kozani, Greece"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Dimitris","family":"Ziouzios","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Western Macedonia, 50100 Kozani, Greece"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ioannis","family":"Vanidis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Western Macedonia, 50100 Kozani, Greece"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2180-9752","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Minas","family":"Dasygenis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Western Macedonia, 50100 Kozani, Greece"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,10,26]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Matheson, E., Minto, R., Zampieri, E.G.G., Faccio, M., and Rosati, G. (2019). Human\u2013Robot Collaboration in Manufacturing Applications: A Review. Robotics, 8.","DOI":"10.3390\/robotics8040100"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Parekh, D., Poddar, N., Rajpurkar, A., Chahal, M., Kumar, N., Joshi, G.P., and Cho, W. (2022). A Review on Autonomous Vehicles: Progress, Methods and Challenges. Electronics, 11.","DOI":"10.3390\/electronics11142162"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"917","DOI":"10.1287\/trsc.2018.0873","article-title":"Robotized and Automated Warehouse Systems: Review and Recent Developments","volume":"53","author":"Azadeh","year":"2019","journal-title":"Transp. Sci."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"693","DOI":"10.1631\/FITEE.2000156","article-title":"Warehouse automation by logistic robotic networks: A cyber-physical control approach","volume":"21","author":"Cai","year":"2020","journal-title":"Front. Inf. Technol. Electron. Eng."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Baras, N., and Dasygenis, M. (2019, January 8\u20139). An algorithm for routing heterogeneous vehicles in robotized warehouses. Proceedings of the 2019 Panhellenic Conference on Electronics & Telecommunications (PACET), Volos, Greece.","DOI":"10.1109\/PACET48583.2019.8956244"},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"116","DOI":"10.3390\/automation2030007","article-title":"Improving Automatic Warehouse Throughput by Optimizing Task Allocation and Validating the Algorithm in a Developed Simulation Tool","volume":"2","author":"Baras","year":"2021","journal-title":"Automation"},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bolu, A., and Kor\u00e7ak, \u00d6. (2019, January 6\u20138). Path Planning for Multiple Mobile Robots in Smart Warehouse. Proceedings of the 2019 7th International Conference on Control, Mechatronics and Automation (ICCMA), Delft, The Netherlands.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICCMA46720.2019.8988635"},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Chatzisavvas, A., Chatzitoulousis, P., Ziouzios, D., and Dasygenis, M. (2022). A Routing and Task-Allocation Algorithm for Robotic Groups in Warehouse Environments. Information, 13.","DOI":"10.3390\/info13060288"},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kundu, T., and Saha, I. (2018, January 21\u201325). Charging Station Placement for Indoor Robotic Applications. Proceedings of the 2018 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Brisbane, QLD, Australia.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICRA.2018.8461006"},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"113","DOI":"10.1023\/A:1016639210559","article-title":"Coverage for robotics\u2014A survey of recent results","volume":"31","author":"Choset","year":"2001","journal-title":"Ann. Math. Artif. Intell."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"345","DOI":"10.1016\/0377-2217(92)90192-C","article-title":"The vehicle routing problem: An overview of exact and approximate algorithms","volume":"59","author":"Laporte","year":"1992","journal-title":"Eur. J. Oper. Res."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"451","DOI":"10.1016\/j.robot.2007.09.007","article-title":"Conflict-free container routing in mesh yard layouts","volume":"56","author":"Zeng","year":"2008","journal-title":"Robot. Auton. Syst."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Fleuren, H., den Hertog, D., and Kort, P. (2005). Operations Research Proceedings 2004: Selected Papers of the Annual International Conference of the German Operations Research Society (GOR)\u2014Jointly Organized with the Netherlands Society for Operations Research (NGB), Tilburg, The Netherlands, 1\u20133 September 2004, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/3-540-27679-3"},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"87","DOI":"10.1007\/s13676-012-0008-7","article-title":"Conflict-free vehicle routing","volume":"1","author":"Gawrilow","year":"2012","journal-title":"EURO J. Transp. Logist."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2377","DOI":"10.1080\/00207549108948090","article-title":"Conflict-free shortest-time bidirectional AGV routeing","volume":"29","author":"KIM","year":"1991","journal-title":"Int. J. Prod. Res."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2846","DOI":"10.1109\/TSG.2014.2344684","article-title":"Electric Vehicle Charging Station Placement: Formulation, Complexity, and Solutions","volume":"5","author":"Lam","year":"2014","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Smart Grid"},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"6552","DOI":"10.1109\/TSG.2019.2907262","article-title":"Electric Vehicle Charging Station Placement Method for Urban Areas","volume":"10","author":"Cui","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Smart Grid"},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"91","DOI":"10.1007\/s11831-019-09374-4","article-title":"Nature-Inspired Optimization Algorithms Applied for Solving Charging Station Placement Problem: Overview and Comparison","volume":"28","author":"Deb","year":"2021","journal-title":"Arch. Comput. Methods Eng."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Cicceri, G., Guastella, D.C., Sutera, G., Cancelliere, F., Vitti, M., Randazzo, G., Distefano, S., and Muscato, G. (2023). An Intelligent Hierarchical Cyber-Physical System for beach waste management: The BIOBLU case study. IEEE Access.","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2023.3317689"},{"key":"ref_20","first-page":"3566","article-title":"Task Allocation of Intelligent Warehouse Picking System based on Multi-robot Coalition","volume":"13","author":"Xue","year":"2019","journal-title":"KSII Trans. Internet Inf. Syst."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"313","DOI":"10.1007\/s11370-021-00363-w","article-title":"Coordination of multi-robot path planning for warehouse application using smart approach for identifying destinations","volume":"14","author":"Sharma","year":"2021","journal-title":"Intell. Serv. Robot."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Popovi\u0107, V., Kilibarda, M., Andreji\u0107, M., Jereb, B., and Dragan, D. (2021). A New Sustainable Warehouse Management Approach for Workforce and Activities Scheduling. Sustainability, 13.","DOI":"10.3390\/su13042021"},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Sales, A., Mira, P., Maria Nascimento, A., Brand\u00e3o, A., Saska, M., and Nascimento, T. (2023, January 6\u20139). Heterogeneous Multi-Robot Systems Approach for Warehouse Inventory Management. Proceedings of the 2023 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS), Warsaw, Poland.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICUAS57906.2023.10155890"}],"container-title":["Future Internet"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1999-5903\/15\/11\/353\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,10]],"date-time":"2025-10-10T21:12:13Z","timestamp":1760130733000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1999-5903\/15\/11\/353"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2023,10,26]]},"references-count":23,"journal-issue":{"issue":"11","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,11]]}},"alternative-id":["fi15110353"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/fi15110353","relation":{},"ISSN":["1999-5903"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1999-5903","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2023,10,26]]}}}