Overview
The Cooperative Storage Library Switzerland is a storage library for the affiliated member libraries and archives. It takes care of the efficient, space-saving, cost-effective storage and management of books, journals, files and other print media in accordance with conservation guidelines. The items are stored in over 110,000 bins in the fully automated high-bay warehouse. The items have different dimensions and therefore make suboptimal use of the space in the bins. In some cases, more than 30% of the space in the bins is unused and valuable storage space is wasted, so that a new warehouse may have to be built even though unused space would still be available.
Based on detection with optical sensors, the empty space available in the bins is to be analysed and utilized more optimally, so that minimal empty space remains with as few rearrangements in the storage bins as possible. For this purpose, a software architecture for a new approach for the optical detection of the occupied space will be investigated which allows such an optimization and at the same time provides information for height detection which can serve as a planning basis for future storage modules and damage detection. For the space optimization of the items stored in the containers, an innovative approach will be explored that combines several algorithms from the area of artificial intelligence.
