A Roadmap Towards an Automated Warehouse Digital Twin: Current Implementations and Future Developments

Automation and digitization increase the effectiveness and efficiency of logistics processes. In warehousing, Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (AS/RS) are largely adopted due to their considerable advantages over traditional warehousing, namely high space utilization, shorter cycle times and improved inventory control. To further enhance such advantages, warehouse operations can be digitized via a Digital Twin (DT) which retrieves data from the real-world industrial process, mimics its behaviour and feeds specific inputs back to the real-world process, after elaboration from a simulation-based digital model. This work presents a DT proposal for a real-world AS/RS system, highlighting its current implementations together with its future developments.