Traffic management system and method for materials handling using traffic balancing and traffic density

A method for prioritizing vehicle movements in an automatic material handling system, the method comprising:

• providing an ordered list of move requests, the ordered list including a source node and a destination node associated with each move request;
• calculating a traffic balance value for each source node and for each destination node for each move request;
• calculating a traffic density value for each source node and for each destination node for each move request;
• calculating a free car limit value for each source node and for each destination node for each move request;
• searching said ordered list of move requests for a first move request having an associated source node and destination node each having said traffic balance value equal to a first traffic balance value and said traffic density value equal to a first traffic density value;
• assigning said first move request a first priority value;
• searching said ordered list of move requests for a second move request having an associated source node and destination node having said traffic balance value equal a second traffic balance value and said traffic density value equal to a second traffic density value;
• assigning said second move request a second priority value;
• searching said ordered list of move requests for a third move request having a source node having said free car limit value equal to a first free car limit value;
• and
• assigning said third move request a third priority value.