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Amit Kulkarni avatar image
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Amit Kulkarni asked Amit Kulkarni commented

AGV Drive In Rack

Continuing my experimentation with the capabilities of AGV network, in the attached model, I want to make the AGV travel inside a Drive In Rack (Rack1 in this model) and drop the flow items it is carrying at each bay. I created control points below each bay and designated them as drop off points. It seems that the AGV always drops off the items at the control point connected to the rack with location connection and then the items move in to the corresponding assigned slot.

Model 1:

AGV_Drive_In_Rack.fsm


In a separate model, I split the rack into 4 independent racks, each with 1 bay. Each rack is connected to a control point with location connection. These control points are connected to a main CP as drop off points. In this case, the AGV drives to the CP and performs the expected operation.

Model 2:

Separate_Rack_With_AGV_DropOff_autosave.fsm


What do I change in model 1, so that the AGV drives in the rack, to the assigned bay and drops off the flow item it is carrying? I am searching for a robust solution which would let me scale this approach to multiple racks, and avoid creating hundreds of bays with the approach implemented in Model 2.

Any pointers?


FlexSim 21.0.0
FlexSim 20.2.3
agvflexsim 20.2.3drive-in rack
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Jason Lightfoot avatar image Jason Lightfoot ♦ commented ·

As we discovered in the previous question, AGVs don't do offset travel (to a location not on the network) and I don't think we can associate slots, bays, or levels with control points. One alternative is to not use the AGV, but another navigator.

I willl bring this up at a meeting today to see if someone has a good idea for you.

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Amit Kulkarni avatar image Amit Kulkarni Jason Lightfoot ♦ commented ·

Thank you! Looking forward to hearing from you.

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Jason Lightfoot avatar image Jason Lightfoot ♦ commented ·

The most promising approach might be to use waypoints to redirect the AGV to the correct control point for the slot.

Unsure at the moment if we can change navigators mid-simulation to enable offset travel - I thought not but can see if there's a way.

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Jason Lightfoot avatar image Jason Lightfoot ♦ Jason Lightfoot ♦ commented ·

TestSwitchNavigators.fsmHere's a demonstation of changing from AGV to AStar in the middle of the run.

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Amit Kulkarni avatar image Amit Kulkarni Jason Lightfoot ♦ commented ·

Thanks! I will look into it.

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Amit Kulkarni avatar image Amit Kulkarni Jason Lightfoot ♦ commented ·

Thank you for the response. I see that the waypoints approach would work if I have only few racks in the model. I am thinking in terms of scalability of this approach.

I would appreciate if you could see if there is a way to change navigators mid-simulation. Meanwhile, I will work on developing a test model with waypoints.


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Ben Wilson avatar image Ben Wilson ♦♦ commented ·

Hi @Amit Kulkarni, was Jörg Vogel's answer helpful? If so, please click the red "Accept" button on their answer. Or if you still have questions, add a comment and we'll continue the conversation.

If we haven't heard back from you within 3 business days we'll auto-accept an answer, but you can always unaccept and comment back to reopen your question.

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Amit Kulkarni avatar image Amit Kulkarni Ben Wilson ♦♦ commented ·

@Ben Wilson Thank you. I will keep that in mind :)

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1 Answer

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Joerg Vogel avatar image
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Joerg Vogel answered Amit Kulkarni commented

I think I found an approach. I insert 2 additional tasks to let travel the taskexecuter to a location in the model. Then the item is unloaded to the rack to an already assigned slot and then I let him travel back to the control point where the travel on the agv path system had finished.

  1. Assign slot On Creation or before Offset Travel starts
  2. Let the taskexecuter travel near the location of the slot, perhaps you have to design the path over a route of locations (Taskexecuter On Receive Tasksequence)
  3. Let him travel back to Control Point where the AGV travel had finished (Taskexecuter On AGV Deallocate)

agv_offset_rack.fsm


agv-offset-rack.fsm (44.9 KiB)
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Amit Kulkarni avatar image Amit Kulkarni commented ·

Thank you @Jörg Vogel. I will look into it and report my findings.

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