Overhead hoist transportation systems (OHTS) have been the subject of worldwide research and development in recent years. The majority of these systems are utilized in semi-automated or fully automated factories. This article proposes a new solution for OTHS based on the concept of the modulation of mobile units that can move on a railway structure from one point to another. The OHTS mentioned in this article is a group of shuttles that can operate independently but which also have the ability to cooperate together to complete the desired tasks. By using the space below the ceiling, this system can operate without affecting the original design of the factories. There are many potential fields of application for picking-up and delivering, such as the medical field, the food and beverage fields, automotive and electrical appliances, etc. Moreover, by applying Dijkstra’s algorithm in the controller design, the transportation speed among the stations in the whole system can be improved. The real prototype of the whole system, including three shuttles, is also manufactured to explore and assess the design and operation of the proposed system and its controller.

In considering the problem of saving spaces during the transportation of items from one station to another, for example, in warehouses, factories, hospitals, etc., an automatic transportation system (ATS) that could take advantage of the above ceiling spaces for the transportation of products is considered. Such a system guarantees that the activities occurring in the floor area will be maintained as usual. To achieve this requirement, the ceiling spaces of a building are used to construct an automatic multi-station multi-container (MSMC) transportation system. This system can transport items from one place to another in the whole system. This system is designed to utilize the spaces above the ceiling, and it has the advantage of saving floor space for transportation operations. This will increase the operational capability of the industries and also improve the productivity of the industry in which this system is implemented. The entire transportation system includes (1) the essential conveying system (which is a functional conveyor module with a specified number of containers); (2) the control block that can monitor and operate the system; and (3) the sensor block for detecting and identifying the containers. The content of this article focuses on the introduction of the mechanical system (1); the control system (2); and the operating principle of the whole system (3).

Research and development on a global scale have been conducted on overhead hoist transportation systems (OHTSs) in recent years. The majority of these systems are utilized in manufacturing facilities that are either semiautomated or fully automated. By using stochastic models to evaluate medication distribution and product delivery processes in automated delivery systems, hospitals can reduce patient waiting times and drug response times. Warehouses are being transformed into fully automated fulfillment factories by using conveyors and shelf-lifting mobile robots, which reduce waiting times and improve efficiency. Modern warehouses are increasingly becoming fully automated fulfillment facilities as a response to the significant development of e-commerce. A significant number of organizations are using mobile robots or conveyor systems to transport shelves. The parts-to-picker model is used to transport stock-keeping units (SKUs) to stationary pickers at picking workstations. The aim of this study is to analyze and organize the relationship between transportation system families. They are utilized in various fields, such as warehouses, hospitals, airports, cross-dockings, etc. Furthermore, this study categorizes a range of synchronization issues that arise from minor variations in workstation configurations within different warehouse settings. Next, we identify a multistation ATS (automatic transportation system) that switches lines to different stations by using overhead conveyors and active line-switching devices. Vietnam’s automated freight problem can be solved with this potential solution. Our study’s findings suggest that enhancing the workstation layout can significantly enhance throughput performance. As a result, the benefits of synchronization can surpass those provided by other well-studied decision tasks.

Automated Overhead Rail Systems (AORs) have a key role in warehouse and in-house industry, as well as in the modern hospital, where efficient shuttle dispatching directly impacts throughput and reliability. This paper presents a quadratic control model formulated in symmetric quadratic matrix form to capture balanced interactions between shuttles, tasks, and priorities. A Genetic Algorithm (GA) is employed to solve the optimization problem, with operators adapted to exploit quadratic symmetry, for faster convergence and stable performance. Simulation results on a microcontroller-based testbed demonstrated that the proposed model achieved shorter dispatching times, reduced waiting costs, and more symmetrically distributed workloads compared with conventional heuristic approaches. The study shows that symmetry is not only a modeling feature, but also a design principle, supporting future extensions such as emergency handling and multi-priority dispatching.