Patent ID: 7920961

Claim:
A warehouse management system comprising: a model generator to define a layout model of an area of a warehouse and save the model to a storage system, the model generator having a layout analyzer to receive layout data for the area, the layout data including a grid representation of the area with structural features of the area indicated by coordinates on the grid; a pathway definition module to define edges in the area, each edge representing a permissible pathway indicating where travel through the area is permissible, the edges being line segments bounded by a pair of coordinates; and a node network generator to generate a network of nodes for the area where each node represents an end of each edge; and a path generator to generate a path from the layout model for a task within the area, the path generator having a layout analyzer to receive the layout model and identify a starting location and a task location within the area; and a path calculator to generate a path from the starting location to the task location based on the edges defined within the layout model.