Seminar: Dr. Banu Yetkin Ekren, “Energy Efficient Design of Autonomous Vehicle Based Storage and Retrieval Systems”

Date-Time: May 11, 2016 – 15.00 – Place: Senate Room

Energy Efficient Design of Autonomous Vehicle Based Storage and Retrieval Systems

by Banu Yetkin Ekren

Material handling is a critical function that is seen in manufacturing and service companies alike. A major segment of the multi-billion dollar material handling industry is the Automated Storage and Retrieval System (AS/RS). There are primarily two types of AS/RSs – traditional, Crane-Based Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (CBAS/RSs) and the Autonomous Vehicle Storage and Retrieval Systems (AVS/RSs).

In this seminar, energy efficient design of AVS/RS will be covered. An efficient warehouse design should consider not only travel time minimization but also minimization of energy consumption in the system as well as their negative environmental effects to the environment. Hence, by minimizing the electricity (energy) consumption in these systems, the amount of CO2 oscillation produced by these systems is also aimed to be reduced. To make the system more energy efficient, an energy recovery mechanism converting a slowing down (braking) autonomous device’s kinetic energy into another form (i.e., electricity) that can be either used immediately or stored until needed is also considered. Here, energy regeneration can be applied for both slowing down autonomous devices in the system

Short Bio:

Dr. Banu Yetkin Ekren got her B.S. and M.Sc. degrees from the Dept. of Industrial Engineering at Dokuz Eylul University in Izmir/Turkey and from the Dept. of Industrial Engineering at Pamukkale University in Denizli/Turkey, respectively. In 2009, she completed her Ph.D. in the Department of Industrial Engineering at University of Louisville, KY, USA under Prof. Sunderesh S. Heragu’s supervision who is an academically experienced and very well-known professor and has numerous awards as well as numerous published articles in warehousing, facilities design, logistics, supply-chain management and distribution areas. Her doctoral dissertation investigates design and analysis of a new material handling technology – autonomous vehicle storage and retrieval system (AVS/RS) – using analytical and simulation models. This work was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation. In that project, the partner company (Savoye Logistics) was located in France. Her developed models provide significant insights in the design of this new technology – AVS/RS – which are published several articles in well-known journals. In recognition of this work, she received “the Best Doctoral Dissertation Award” at University of Louisville in 2009 after completing her doctoral study in two years.

She also completed a one-year postdoctoral research in the period of May 2011 – May 2012 for a funded contract project with the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) at University of Louisville, USA under Prof. Sunderesh S. Heragu’s supervision. DLA is the Department of Defense’s largest logistics combat support agency providing worldwide logistics to the military services as well as several civilian agencies and foreign countries. She developed a simulation model of DLA’s largest warehouse located in New Cumberland, PA to improve its performance.

Currently, she works as an Associate Professor in the Dept. of Industrial Engineering at

Izmir University of Economics, Izmir, Turkey. Her research areas include: warehousing, design of automated storage and retrieval systems, energy efficient design of systems, simulation, stochastic modeling, logistics.