Switch to AGV Network without disrupting my model

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Maryam H2 asked Jan 4, '24 Jason Lightfoot commented Jan 10, '24

Switch to AGV Network without disrupting my model

I am working on a complex model featuring numerous components and processes, but it's currently running slowly. In my model, I have operators who move AGVs in place of carts. These AGVs are responsible for transporting items to various corridors and rooms, which are divided by dividers/walls. I want to speed up the model without compromising the realistic movement of operators, such as avoiding passing through walls deviating from their intended paths/getting lost. This becomes challenging when I increase the spacing between grid nodes, leading to unusual behaviors. If I consider switching from the A* algorithm to an AGV Network, Any heads-up on this replacement? also is it possible to create paths for operators as well? how much in need to change my process flows/object flows as I have many processes/project flows?

also, aside from the tutorial available at https://docs.flexsim.com/en/23.1/WorkingWithTasks/AGVNetworks/BuildingAGVLogic/BuildingAGVLogic.html, are there any other step-by-step guides for implementing an AGV network in replace of A star?

Software Version:

FlexSim 23.2.2

agv astar agv paths

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Jason Lightfoot ♦ commented · Jan 10 at 12:47 PM

Hi @Maryam H2, was Jason Lightfoot's answer helpful? If so, please click the "Accept" button at the bottom of their answer. Or if you still have questions, add a comment and we'll continue the conversation.

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Answer 1 · 2024-01-05T10:00:24Z

Jason Lightfoot answered Jan 5, '24 Jason Lightfoot commented Jan 10, '24

As I mentioned before - I would consider switching your operators to a node network and any AGVs to the AGV navigator. Again I suggest you build a small test model or do the relevant tutorials so you are familiar with the steps involved.

Lastly note that the task executers still get the same travel jobs as they do when using astar so your logic will not be impacted - they just use a different navigation method.

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Maryam H2 commented · Jan 10 at 06:22 PM

@Jason Lightfoot

I tried switching things up with just one group of operators, but it turned out to be a lot more work than I expected. I need to figure out paths for them every time they go somewhere or interact with something, and there's a bunch of them.

I heard that some people speed up their simulation runs (I do not know the software yet) by linking several computers to work together, kind of like parallel computing. Do you think that could work for making my model run faster?

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Jason Lightfoot ♦ Maryam H2 commented · Jan 10 at 06:38 PM

This is unlikely to help since FlexSim's event managing engine is single threaded. You can use multiple computers to perform replications of an experiment though, so multiple replication analysis can be better than analysing one long run for this (and other) reasons. However while you're debugging and verifying a model this doesn't help.

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Maryam H2 Jason Lightfoot ♦ commented · Jan 10 at 06:41 PM

I see, is there any instructions how to connect and do those replications run?

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