Pulling tasks out of a schedule

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Akshay P asked Jul 29, '19 Akshay P commented Jul 29, '19

Pulling tasks out of a schedule

I have a list (a schedule of tasks) to be executed by a network of AGVs. To aid your visualization, I have attached a few snapshots of the list.

As you can see in those snaps, an excelsheet consisting of an entire schedule to be executed has been laid out. The first column (Task type) specifies the type of task the AGV has to execute. The numbers 1, 2 and 3 specify such kind of tasks. The second column (RobotID) specifies the robot to be used (out of the available ones in the network) to execute that particular task in the whole sequence. 3rd column specifies the material ID (so as to aid the tracking of particular part throughout the process. 4th column specifies the container type for the product (2 options to chose from). 5th column specifies the origin position of the part in that step and 6th specifies the destination of the part for that step.

Hence, this is the kind of a list I want to give as an input to my AGV network, so that they can execute the tasks in the said sequence.

How can this kind of an operation be achieved on flexsim? Would really appreciate any leads on this (example cases, discussion threads etc.)

Regards,

Akshay Pundir

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agv excel import agv process flow agv module scheduling

sch-2.png (17.1 KiB)

sch-1.png (25.4 KiB)

Answer 1 · 2019-07-29T13:39:15Z

Braydn T answered Jul 29, '19 Akshay P commented Jul 29, '19

Hey @Akshay P

If I understand you correctly, you could achieve this with Process Flow and Global Tables. FlexSim can import Tables from Excel, so that would be your first step. Here is documentation on how to do that: Excel Tables

There are several tutorials on Process Flow, and they start here: Process Flow Tutorials and if you have the time I would recommend running through them.

Basically you will create a source in Process Flow that will create tokens whenever you want a flow item to go through your system. I would assign a label on creation, and use that to reference what task flow it will go through. If you assign the token to a 3D flow item on creation, you wont need to reference the objects location in the load tasks. You will use Global Table Lookup to get the item, the machine, the unloading point, etc. It will look something like this:

I would create a resource that has all of your robots in it, and do Resource By Case to acquire the correct Robot. If you can simplify the tasks that have to be completed in such a way that if a flow item has a label "3", it will acquire Robot1, load, and unload in the same location, then you can greatly simplify your Process Flow. You could make that the label you assign on creation, and then use a decide task in Process Flow to have it go to its particular item flow.

If you have any questions about this, feel free to comment back with more questions.

global-table.png (12.1 KiB)

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Akshay P commented · Jul 29, 2019 at 02:00 PM

@Braydn T thank you for your reply. As I am fairly new to the platform, I will take sometime to validate your proposed approach. Thanks for providing me with a direction though :)

A small follow up question though -

I am building a simulator where a vast number of factory automation setups can be tested by a user. For that purpose, I am not sure how many AGV would be in my network. It can be that there will be 2,3 or even 10 AGVs in a use case that I have to control.

Would process flow allow me that flexibility to add/remove AGVs to the process flow without embedding the entire logic again? Since I am building a simulator, I wish to make it as customisable and easy to implement for the user as possible.

Looking forward to your reply :)

Regards,

Akshay Pundir

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Braydn T Akshay P commented · Jul 29, 2019 at 02:04 PM

@Akshay P

Yes it would. You would create a group in your toolbox, and make that the reference for your Resource in Process Flow. Then you can add or remove AGVs from the group, and your Process Flow will remain unchanged.

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Akshay P Braydn T commented · Jul 29, 2019 at 02:11 PM

@Braydn T Awesome! Thank you so much for the information :)

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