METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CONTROLLING THE OPERATION OF CONTAINER HANDLING VEHICLES AND DRONES SERVING AN AUTOMATED STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEM

A method controls the operation of container handling vehicles and remotely operated specialized container handling vehicles. A specified storage container is to be transferred from a storage column and its corresponding grid cell to a specialized container handling vehicle. The method includes determining, by an operational controller, which container handling vehicle shall be assigned for the job; sending instructions to a first controller in the selected container handling vehicle instructing the selected container handling vehicle to pick up the storage container from the grid cell and to lower the storage container to a selected port; assigning a specific specialized container handling vehicle of the remotely operated specialized container handling vehicles to retrieve the specified storage container from the port; and transmitting instructions from the operational controller to a second controller in the specific specialized container handling vehicle to retrieve the specified storage container at the selected port. The specific specialized container handling vehicle is selected based on minimizing the total elapsed time for transferring the storage container between the selected container handling vehicle and the specific specialized container handling vehicle.