Logical reconfiguration of reconfigurable manufacturing systems with stream of variations modelling: a stochastic two-stage programming and shortest path model

Designing flexible manufacturing systems in general, and flexible material handling system in particular, is a complex problem, typically approached through several stages. Here the focus is on the conceptual design stage during which valid approximation-based methods are needed. The segmented flow topology (SFT) AGV systems were developed to facilitate control of complex automated material handling systems. This paper introduces a decomposition method, directly derived from timed Petri nets (TPN) theories, to calculate the expected utilization of AGVs (as servers of SFT systems) and to derive simple operational decision rules leading to maximum system productivity at steady state, for a given deterministic routeing of discrete material through the manufacturing system.     

Intelligent agent framework to determine the optimal conflict-free path for an automated guided vehicles system

Agent technology has been considered as an important approach for developing intelligent manufacturing systems. It offers a new way of thinking about many of the classical problems in manufacturing engineering. The conflict resolution of automated guided vehicles (AGVs) in a flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) environment is one such problem that comes under this category. This paper describe a multi-agent approach to the operational control of AGVs by integration of path generation, enumerating time-windows, searching interruptions, adjusting waiting time and taking decisions on the selection of routes. It presents an efficient algorithm and rules for finding a conflict-free shortest-time path for AGVs, which is applicable to a bi- and unidirectional flow path network. The concept of loop formation in a flow path network is introduced to deal with the parking of idle vehicles, without obstructing the path of moveable AGVs. The concept of loop formation at nodes reduces the timing-taking task of finding the dynamic positioning of idle AGVs in the network.     

A max-algebra approach to the robust distributed control of repetitive AGV systems

This paper presents a new approach for distributed control of automatic guided vehicle systems (AGVS) that uses max-algebra formalism to model system operation. The proposed method differs from previous works on performance analysis and control of such systems in that it constructs a feasible schedule by exploiting the repetitive character of the flow of automated guided vehicles. The AGVS is treated as a distributed system composed of autonomous and repetitive processes of AGV flows. Its periodic behaviour follows from the type of operation characterizing the job shops considered. The proposed approach employs a concept of asynchronous traffic semaphores that provide the local mechanism for vehicle flow synchronization. Setting the timing of particular semaphores results in distributed control of vehicle flows possessing self-synchronization capabilities.     

Performance evaluation of tandem and conventional AGV systems using generalized stochastic Petri nets

This paper investigates the different policies and concepts followed in the traffic management of automated guided vehicle (AGV) systems, and develops the controls for automatically eliminating potential vehicle conflicts in an AGV system. The planning of the AGV system is performed in such a way that there are no conflicts or deadlocks for the vehicles using stochastic Petri nets (SPNs). The major effort is devoted to determining the benefits of the tandem AGV control in comparison with the conventional AGV control method. SPNs have been used to model the different designs of flexible manufacturing systems (FMSs) and with different policies for the movement of material, vehicle path control, inventory planning and tool control. The SPN model is solved and the performance of the system can be evaluated. In this study, the effort is directed to model an FMS with two different types of AGV traffic management methods, namely the conventional and tandem AGV control. A SPN program is used which takes the FMS Petri net model as the input and evaluates the different properties of the Petri net. Finally the performance measures are obtained, which helps in evaluating and comparing the two different AGV traffic management methods.     

A neural algorithm for finding the shortest flow path for an automated guided vehicle system

The automated guided vehicle (AGV)system is emerging as the dominant technology to maximize the flexibility of material handling, while increasing the overall productivity of manufacturing operations. This paper presents a new way of finding the shortest flow path for an AGV system on a specific routing structure. An optimal solution of the system is determined by using an approach based on the Hopfield neural network with the simulated annealing (SA) procedure. In other words, the proposed approach reduces the total cost of an AGV delivery path from one workstation to another on the shop floor. By changing the temperature of the two-stage SA, a solution can be found that avoids potential collisions between AGVs. Both the flow path and the potential collision, which are major problems in AGV systems, may be solved simultaneously by the proposed neural network approach. Other advantages offered by the proposed method are its simplicity compared with operations research (OR)methods and a decreased number of needed AGVs. The performance of the approach is also investigated.     

考虑冲突避免的多AGV路径规划研究

目的 提高物流企业“货到人”拣选系统在实际生产中的工作效率，避免自动导引小车(AGV)间的冲突死锁，研究大规模多AGV的无冲突路径规划和协同避障问题。方法 首先考虑AGV空载、负载情况和路径扩展成本，改进A^*算法，动态调整代价函数，优化路径扩展方式。其次，提出冲突检测及避免算法，对可能产生局部冲突的路径交叉点进行避障调度，通过预约锁格，实现局部冲突的检测，制定优先级避障策略，解决AGV动态行驶路径上产生的局部冲突和死锁，进而实现全局无冲突路径规划。结果 对多组不同任务量和不同AGV规模的场景进行仿真，实验结果表明，考虑冲突避免的改进A^*算法能有效实现100个任务、90个货架单位和7个拣选站场景下的多AGV动态路径规划，相较于传统A^*算法，其平均拣选时长缩短了52.61%。结论 该方法可实现大规模场景下的多AGV动态路径规划，在付出较小转弯代价的同时有效避免局部动态冲突，该方法可为相关企业实现多AGV协同调度提供新的思路和理论依据。     

基于路段时间窗考虑备选路径的AGV路径规划

针对自动化集装箱码头基于卸箱任务的自动导引车（automated guided vehicle,AGV）路径规划问题,结合最优路径数学模型、路径搜索方法和时间窗,提出了一种基于路段时间窗的AGV路径规划方法。首先,在给AGV下派任务的基础上,用最优路径数学模型为AGV规划出最短路径;其次,用路径搜索方法搜索AGV的备选路径,在路径长度相同的情况下,按照路径中转折次数确定备选路径优先级,转折次数少的备选路径优先级高;最后,在各AGV最短路径下,设置各个路段的时间窗,时间窗无重叠则表明AGV无冲突,对于时间窗重叠的路段,采用在原路径上插入时间窗或者在备选路径上插入时间窗的方法,再进行时间窗重叠测试,若还存在重叠的,则继续调整至最终实现多AGV的无冲突路径规划。为了验证方法的有效性,以8台AGV分区同时工作为例,用实例证明所提出的路径规划方法的避碰效果。结果显示该方法能为多台同时工作的AGV规划出一条无冲突优化路径,并且用时较短;在试验中发现选择在备选路径上插入时间窗的方法效果更好。研究表明所提方法能有效实现AGV的避碰,提高AGV利用率和自动化集装箱码头的运作效率。     

Tandem Configurations for Automated Guided Vehicle Systems and the Analysis of Single Vehicle Loops

Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) systems continue to play a significant role in many low to medium flow manufacturing operations, including Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS) and other applications. The relatively inexpensive guidepath, coupled with the high degree of flexibility and control offered in vehicle routing, has made AGV systems a proven and viable handling technology for the 90's.

Traditionally, AGV systems have been implemented and analyzed assuming that every vehicle is allowed to visit any pick up/deposit point in the system. We introduce a conceptually simple and intuitive approach where the system is decomposed into non-overlapping, single-vehicle loops operating in tandem. In this paper, we also develop an analytical model to study the throughput performance of a single vehicle loop. The resulting expressions are the first closed form analytical expressions that have been obtained to determine the throughput capacity of a single vehicle operating under a specific dispatching rule in a non-deterministic environment.     

基于动态时间窗的泊车系统路径规划研究

针对智能立体停车库中自动导引运输车(automated guided vehicle,AGV)存取车路径规划问题,采用分时利用策略,将Dijkstra算法和时间窗法有效结合,提出了一种基于动态时间窗的泊车系统路径规划方法。首先,通过引入优先级策略为接收任务的AGV设定优先级;其次,采用Dijkstra算法,按照任务优先级高低次序,依次为接受任务的AGV规划出最短可行路径;最后,在已知AGV可行路径基础上,通过对可行路径各路段的时间窗进行初始化、实时更新以及实时排布处理,实现多AGV的无冲突路径规划。为验证所提方法的可行性和有效性,以4台AGV同时工作的智能立体停车库为实例进行仿真测试。结果显示:所提出的路径规划方法不仅有效解决了目前多AGV路径规划柔性差、易出现死锁、碰撞冲突等问题,而且可在有效解决路径冲突的前提下,为接受任务的AGV规划出一条时间最短的优化路径。所提方法具有较好的鲁棒性和柔性,有效提高了智能立体停车系统整体运行效率,降低了存取车等待时间。     

Deadlock avoidance in an automated guidance vehicle system using a coloured Petri net model

This paper addresses the problem of deadlock control in automated guided vehicle (AGV) systems for automated manufacturing systems with unidirectinal guided paths. First, a Petri net (PN) model was developed for the problem. Then, by using the PN model developed, the condition for deadlock-free operation in AGV system and a control law are presented. To avoid deadlocks in AGV systems by this law, one needs only to observe the state of the system and check the number of free spaces available in some of the circuits. It is estimated that the proposed control law is simple enough to be used in the real-time control of contemporary system configuration. Three examples are used to show the application and efficiency of the proposed control law.     

Flexible guidepath design for automated guided vehicle systems

We address the problem of unidirectional guidepath layout design for automated guided vehicle systems- A two-step layout design method to consider both loaded and empty vehicle movements is developed to guarantee a complete layout design. First, the flow path selection (FPS) problem is formulated to design guidepath layout with the objective of minimizing loaded vehicle movements. Both a mathematical model and a heuristic algorithm for FPS are presented. Since AGV guidepath layouts are used by both loaded and empty vehicles, the FPS does not guarantee a closed or complete layout design. For the case when an incomplete or unclosed layout is produced from the first step, a complementary layout design (CLD) approach to convert the incomplete layout into complete one with the consideration of empty vehicle movements is considered in the second step. A heuristic for the CLD problem is developed. An example problem is used to illustrate the whole design approach.     

Analysis of automated guided vehicle configurations in flexible manufacturing systems

Automated guided vehicle (AGV) systems complement the operation of flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) by providing integrated automated material handling that capitalizes on the system's flexibility. Previous research considering AGV systems for use in FMS installations has focused on complex control strategies to reduce the congestion problem often encountered in these systems. Recently, attention has been given to tandem system configurations that reduce congestion and simplify system control. The present study uses the simulation methodology to compare the performance of three AGV configurations under a variety of experimental conditions. The results indicate that system size, load/unload time, and machine failure rate factors have significant impacts on the operation of the systems considered. In general, with respect to due date performance, it is recommended to use the traditional configuration in small systems while using the tandem/loop configuration in larger systems. Furthermore, it is shown that the addition of the loop to the tandem configuration mitigates the sensitivity of the tandem configuration to the load/unload time factor as well as significantly improving its performance under high load/unload times. Thus, if tandem configuration is desired to reduce congestion and simplify system control, investments must be made to directly reduce the load/unload times or to construct a loop to avoid the load/unload time penalty.     

A bi-directional path layout for conflict-free routing of AGVs

Automated Guided Vehicles (or AGVs for short) are now widely used in automated material handling systems. Much research has been done on developing path layout and algorithms for the optimal routing and scheduling of AGVs. However, with the drastically increased number of AGVs in some recent applications (e.g. in the order of a hundred in container terminals), algorithms that can achieve a high degree of concurrency of AGV moves are urgently needed. This paper presents a bi-directional path layout and an algorithm for routing AGVs. To route the vehicles without conflicts and to minimize the space requirement of the layout, critical conditions for certain key parameters of the path and vehicle are derived. We further show theoretically that a high degree of concurrency of AGV moves can be achieved, although the routing decision takes only a constant amount of time for each vehicle. The routing efficiency is analysed in terms of the distance traversed and the time requirement for AGVs to complete all pickup and drop-off (or P/D for short) jobs. Results of this study could form a basis for more complicated path layouts and routing algorithms.     

An heuristic for configuring a mixed uni/bidirectional flow path for an AGV system

An heuristic methodology has been developed in the present work for configuring a mixed (hybrid) uni/bidirectional flow path for an AGV material handling system. The given unidirectional flow path layout, material flow intensities and vehicle travelling time matrix among various processing centres are taken as input information to this technique. A multiplicative function of material flow intensities between any two centres is used as a criterion for selectively configuring a path as a bidirectional one. The highest such product indicates that the shorter path between that pair of centres is a strong candidate for being configured as bidirectional. The heuristic has been applied to an illustrative FMS and various alternate flow path designs have been obtained. Simulation is then performed with the aim of comparing the productive potentials of the facility when it is operated on either unidirectional, or mixed uni/bidirectional, or allbidirectional flow path design alternatives. The benefits of bidirectional flows over unidirectional counterpart are significant in terms of system throughput rates and optimal AGV fleet sizes. However, traffic control becomes an important issue as vehicle interference and blocking increases with increase in bidirectionality in the network. The decision related to location and capacity planning of vehicle buffering zones is also addressed.     

A practical heuristic for the group technology economic lot scheduling problem

Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) systems are complex to design and to implement. Inefficiencies become difficult to avoid or even to control. This paper presents the theory behind a novel agent based AGV controller that aims to control the flow of AGVs in an effective manner and, therefore, overcome the inefficiencies that can be found in complex designs. Agents are simple entities that interact with other agents to produce an emergent behaviour that is not explicitly programmed into them. The AGV controller presented uses agents as traffic managers to allow access to points and segments in the guide path. Each agent has a rule base that it uses to assess the enquiries that it receives from an AGV. Each enquiry is evaluated only at the smallest possible part of the guide path rather than the entire guide path. AGVs are then able to allocate segments and points on their paths depending on the result of each enquiry. Simulation experiments were used to test the controller and an overview is presented.     

Deadlock prediction and avoidance based on Petri nets for zone-control automated guided vehicle systems

Deadlock problems of zone-control uni-directional automated guided vehicle (AGV) systems are discussed in this paper. Deadlocks of two types in such AGV systems are first classified from the perspective of shared resources, i.e. guide-path zones and buffers. A special class of Petri nets, attributed Petri nets (APN), is defined and used to represent the current state and to generate future states of zone-control AGV systems. We propose an algorithmic procedure to predict in real time and to avoid deadlocks that are caused by sharing guide-path zones in zone-control AGV systems. The proposed algorithm utilizes the current system state and future predicted states to avoid deadlocks. These states are obtained and generated from the obtained APN. A modular approach is employed to facilitate the construction of APN models of zone-control AGV systems.     

基于IGPS和麦克纳姆轮的AGV导航控制系统设计

目前常规使用的舵轮和差速轮自动导引车（automated guided vehicle,AGV）的精度和灵活性低,无法满足在大型高端产品装配过程中精确定位和导航的要求。为了进一步提高AGV的导航精度和柔性,提出了一种基于IGPS （indoor global positioning system,室内全球定位系统）和麦克纳姆轮的AGV高精度导航控制系统。首先通过IGPS高精度定位和坐标计算获取IGPS接收器的位置坐标,其次采用车体中心提取算法和坐标转换矩阵实现接收器坐标位置到车体中心坐标的转换,最后通过对全向移动AGV的建模,采用模糊PI控制方法对AGV的路径偏差进行纠正,实现AGV的精确定位和循迹导航。利用Simulink对模糊PI控制和传统PI控制进行仿真分析,结果表明,相对于传统PI控制,模糊PI控制响应速度快,调整曲线更平滑。同时,在基于IGPS的AGV试验平台进行试验,采用激光跟踪仪对AGV重复定位位置进行测量,结果显示定位精度达到±0.2 mm。研究结果对提高AGV的高精度定位能力具有借鉴意义,也为后续可移动机器人加工模式的研究提供参考。     

A hybrid modelling approach to the design of an AGV-based material handling system for an FMS

The problem of organizing and controlling the material handling activity in an AGV-based material handling system for a flexible manufacturing system involves several decisions such as the number of vehicles required for the system, the layout of the tracks, the dispatching rules for the vehicles and the provision of control zones and buffers. This paper demonstrates the use of a two-stage approach for solving the problem. The required number of vehicles is estimated using an analytical model in the first stage. In the next stage, the effects of AGV failures and AGV dispatching rules on the system performance are observed through simulation studies based on which the AGV dispatching rule can be chosen.     

自动导引车模型设计

 自动导引车(AGV)的实现是智能移动机器人研究的重要内容之一． 阐述了自动导引车系统(AGVS)的构
成及工作原理，在此基础上对试验型AGV 模型的功能结构与硬件配置进行了详细的设计，并从软件上得以实现．
通过测试，表明该AGV模型达到了预期效果，为工业应用AGVS的开发提供了参考．     

Solution methods for the mathematical models of single-loop AGV systems

Guide path simplification can potentially reduce the complexity inherent in conventional, multi-loop automated guided vehicle systems (AGVs). A single-loop configuration is one alternative. A procedure for designing single-loop AGV systems, the OSL method was presented in a previous paper. In this paper, we suggest faster and more efficient methods for solving the two mathematical models in the OSL procedure. The first model called the valid single-loop problem (VSLP) is used to determine an initial single loop for the procedure. The method suggested is a heuristic procedure that starts from a loop around one of the departments and keeps adding departments to the loop until a valid single loop is constructed. The second model called the single-loop station location problem (SLSLP) is used to determine the location of the pick-up and delivery stations along a given loop. The method suggested converts the mixed integer formulation into a linear formulation.