• IE interfaces
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.45-52
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• 1995

Automated Storage and Retrieval System (AS/RS), which is an element of Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM), is a widely used material handling equipment with conveyors and Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGVs). Until now the evaluation of operational policies of AS/RS and control algorithms is done theoretically or by computer simulations. In this study, a real-time control and communication software for an AS/RS is developed for actually moving AS/RS miniature. A PC-based real-time operational program can control the AS/RS directly through the communication port. The operational system has additional functions such as storage/retrieval management, inventory management, statistics management, and protocol simulation. The communication protocol simulator of S/R machine can be used for the controller of an S/R machine.

• IE interfaces
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• v.16 no.spc
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• pp.93-98
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• 2003

This paper addresses an AGV dispatching problem in semiconductor clean-room bays where AGVs move cassettes of wafers between machines or machines and a central buffer. Since each machine in a bay has a local buffer of limited capacity, material flow should be controlled in a careful way to maintain high system performance. It is regarded that two most important performance measures in a semiconductor bay are throughput rate and lead-time. The throughput rate is determined by a bottleneck resource and the lead-time depends on smooth material flow in the system. This paper presents an AGV dispatching procedure based on the concept of theory of constraints (TOC), by which dispatching decisions are made to utilize the bottleneck resource at the maximum level and to smooth the flow of material. The new dispatching procedure is compared with existing dispatching rules through simulation experiments.

• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.313-324
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• 1996

A new policy to determine the waiting position of an idle Automated Guided Vehicle(AGV) is proposed and its performance is compared with the existing waiting position policies. Unlike the existing policies, the queue length in the input buffer is considered in the new policy. As a result, the waiting position based on the new policy depends on the status of the system. The simulation result indicates that the proposed policy reduces the waiting time in both the input and the output buffers significantly, regardless of the number of AGVs in the system. Therefore, the manufacturing lead time can be minimized.

• IE interfaces
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.438-447
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• 2007

This paper presents an aspect-oriented approach to simulation design and analysis in system design phase for integrated logistics system simulation. The integrated logistics system composed of AS/RS (Automated Storages and Retrieval System), AGVs (Automated Guided Vehicle System), STVs (Sorting Transfer Vehicle System) and Conveyor System is designed by using the aspect-oriented approach and UML (Unified Modeling Language). The multi-factorial design of experiments and regression analysis are used for design parameters of the system and Evolution Strategies is used to verify each parameter. Aspect-oriented approach for the integrated logistics system simulation shows the advantages of code reusability, extendible, modulation, easy improvement and a better design technique.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society for Simulation Conference
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• 1999.04a
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• pp.184-188
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• 1999

The performance of an AGV varies with the applied AGV dispatching rule in the operation of AGVS. This study proposes a multi-attribute AGV dispatching rule. The suggested dispatching rule considers the output queue of a workstation, distance between an idle AGV and a workstation to be served, the input queue of the destination and the remaining job process of a part. This study suggests two types of and the remaining job process of a part. This study suggests two types of multi-attribute dispatching rules. One is an one-stage rule which selects the part to be served considering four attributes simultaneously. The other is a two-stage rule by which a workstation is selected and a part is chosen from the selected workstation. The simulation runs were executed under different experimental conditions to obtain preliminary statistics on the several performance measures.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.22 no.53
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• pp.89-97
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• 1999

We are concerned with the optimal design of flexible manufacturing cells in this study, thus try to suggest the detail information for each resource on the optimal conditions. Object oriented simulation technology is used to write models more easily and to execute simulation running time more rapidly, and the optimal level of relevant decision variables is probed by response surface methodology(RSM), which is well known for the optimization technology based on experiment design and regression equation. We investigate the optimal level for the number of pallets and the speed of AGVs of FMC systems, carry out the performance analysis of this system. Consequently we suggest systematic procedures for the optimization of FMCs in detail design stage.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society for Simulation Conference
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• 1996.05a
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• pp.15-15
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• 1996

A shop floor control system (SFCS) is the central part of a CIM system used to control the activities of several pieces of manufacturing equipment (e.g., NC machines, robots, conveyors, AGVs, AS/RS). The SFCS receives orders and related process plans, and then performs selecting a specific process routing, allocating resources, scheduling the workpieces, downloading the processing instructions (e.g., RS-274 instructions for NC machines, VAL II programs for robot), monitoring the progress of activities, detecting and recovering from errors, and preparing reports on the status of the manufacturing system. Simulation has been utilized in discovering control policies used for resolving shop floor be control problems such as resource contentions, part dispatching, deadlock. The simulation model must be designed to respond to real-time data coming from a shop floor. However, to rapidly build a realtime simulation model of SFCS cannot be easily accomplished. This talk is to address an automatic program generator of discrete event simulation model for shop floor control from process plans and resource models. The program generator is capable of constructing complete discrete simulation models for multi-product and multi-stage flexible manufacturing systems.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.20 no.43
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• pp.249-263
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• 1997

This paper addresses the parts route selection and economic design in flexible manufactuirng system (FMS). Parts are processed through several stage workstations according to operation sequences. The machine of each workstation can do multiple operation functions. And the operation stage of a part can be processed in several workstations, which are non-identical in functional performance. The objective of this paper is to determine the processing routes of parts, number of machine at each workstation, number of vehicle and makespan time. Two models are suggested. One is assumed that the operation stage of parts can be processed at the only one among several available workstations. Other is assumed that the operation stage of parts is allowed to be processed at several workstations. Parts are transported by automated guided vehicles (AGVs). The decision criteria is to minimize the sum of processing cost, travel cost, setup cost and overhead cost. The formulation of models is represented. A solution algorithm is suggested, and a numerical example is shown.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.18 no.36
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• pp.105-112
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• 1995

This paper presents that model 1 is to show an approach to determining unidirection or bidirection of the optimal flow path design, model 2 is to show the design of an AGV can determine the minimum number of required vehicles. Our purposes of this article are that first, it is easy to see that computationlly advanced efficient procedure with some pairwises of comparision, zero-one integer and northwest rule by using, second, to determine the minimum number of vehicles in the layout for manufacturing facility, we used a coefficient ratio with moved numbers of loaded & unloaded vehicles between stations and available time of AGV's capacity for per shift per vehicle. Example is presented to demonstrate the approach.

• International Journal of Fuzzy Logic and Intelligent Systems
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.314-320
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• 2006

Navigation in environments that are densely cluttered with obstacles is still a challenge for Autonomous Ground Vehicles (AGVs), especially when the configuration of obstacles is not known a priori. Reactive local navigation schemes that tightly couple the robot actions to the sensor information have proved to be effective in these environments, and because of the environmental uncertainties, STSF(Space and Time Sensor Fusion)-based fuzzy behavior systems have been proposed. Realization of autonomous behavior in mobile robots, using STSF control based on spatial data fusion, requires formulation of rules which are collectively responsible for necessary levels of intelligence. This collection of rules can be conveniently decomposed and efficiently implemented as a hierarchy of fuzzy-behaviors. This paper describes how this can be done using a behavior-based architecture. The approach is motivated by ethological models which suggest hierarchical organizations of behavior. Experimental results show that the proposed method can smoothly and effectively guide a robot through cluttered environments such as dense forests.