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SudheerReddy avatar image
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SudheerReddy asked SudheerReddy commented

Doubt on Control Area in AGV network

As shown in below image Control Area has no allocations in the model. But in Tree it is showing as 2 allocations.

It looks like a Bug?

te_3.fsm

FlexSim 20.1.3
agvflexsim 20.1.3
ca.png (58.2 KiB)
te-3.fsm (109.4 KiB)
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SudheerReddy avatar image SudheerReddy commented ·

@anthony.johnson any feedback on this?

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tannerp avatar image
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tannerp answered SudheerReddy commented

I don't have the authority to classify this as a bug or not, but there are a couple things I want to point out.

1) The first is that there are not any control points inside the control area, which (in my opinion) means the AGV needs to acquire something else, and the control area is the perfect candidate. This means that the control area won't be deallocated until the second following control point.

2) Another thing to note is that the control area is, in fact, allocated. You can verify this using the "Show Control Point/Area Allocations" option under the General tab in the AGV Network Properties. Changing the Deallocation Types allows the control area in your model to be deallocated.

3) One additional thing is to try moving the control area (even slightly) to make sure that it's connected to the network properly. Doing this seemed to fix the problem.

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SudheerReddy avatar image SudheerReddy commented ·

@tanner.p

1)Without control points also Control area has to be deallocated based on my understanding.

2)Yes Control area is allocated. But you can see the AGVs has the left the control area but still it is showing as allocated. Once the AGVs leave the control area the allocations should not show as allocated even when there are control points or not.

3)Yeah control area is connected to AGV for that reason only allocations is happening in the model.

Now the present model I attached is where in few conditions control area is not working as intended which I feel.

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Phil BoBo avatar image Phil BoBo ♦♦ SudheerReddy commented ·

I think you may be misunderstanding how Control Areas work.

"A control area acts as an additional allocation tool for restricting access to an entire area. As already mentioned, when an AGV arrives at a control point, it will allocate ahead to the next control point. If it must enter any control areas as part of its path to that control point, it must also allocate all of those control areas, then allocate the control point, before it can proceed forward. Note that if it cannot allocate all of the control areas as well as the control point itself, it will not allocate any of them. This helps to prevent deadlock. "

https://docs.flexsim.com/en/20.1/WorkingWithTasks/AGVNetworks/BuildingAGVLogic/#collisions

Control Areas don't function independently of control points. They function in conjunction with them for preventing collisions by limiting how many allocations can be made through them.

Also, the Control Area in your example model has a Max Allocations setting of 100. Since you only have 2 AGVs, that control area isn't going to affect the model at all.

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SudheerReddy avatar image SudheerReddy Phil BoBo ♦♦ commented ·

@phil.bobo Thanks for the feedback.

Here my opinion is even after crossing the control area the allocation is still showing as allocated which is odd.

In my model even 100 as Max allocations I am only trying to show is even after AGV has crossed control area why it is showing as allocated.

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tannerp avatar image tannerp SudheerReddy commented ·

Thanks for the feedback. I think those are fair statements. Admittedly, your control areas should be deallocated in my opinion, but it's a really simple fix to slightly adjust it and make sure it's connected, so I hesitate to classify this as a crucial bug.

Are you seeing this issue consistently in models you're building?

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Phil BoBo avatar image Phil BoBo ♦♦ tannerp commented ·

You don't have to move the control area to ensure it is connected to the paths correctly anymore. There is now a right-click option to do that.

@Sudheer Reddy, if you use this option to fix the network path's links to the control area, then your model behaves the way you expected:

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