BACKGROUND

Modern inventory systems, such as those in mail order warehouses, supply chain distribution centers, airport luggage systems, and custom-order manufacturing facilities, often utilize mobile robotic devices to move items and/or storage containers within a workspace. Coordinating tasks between the various components of these systems can be cumbersome. As inventory systems grow, the challenges of simultaneously completing a large number of packing, storing, and other inventory-related tasks utilizing these components becomes non-trivial. In systems tasked with responding to large numbers of diverse task requests, inefficient utilization of system resources, including space and equipment can result in lower throughput, unacceptably long response times, an ever-increasing backlog of unfinished tasks, and, in general, poor system performance. Coordination between various components of these systems is desirable to improve efficiency and throughput.

