Reactive fuzzy dispatching rule for automated guided vehicles

The Automated Manufacturing System (AMS) scheduling complexity increases with products customization, due dates, alternative routes and no foresee demand in the system. One of the important aspects in shop floor is to ensure that the parts will be at the right position and at the defined time. In this sense it's necessary to have a good transportation system witch allows flexibility and integration, considering a designed performance to the manufacturing system. AGVs have been used to reach this performance, but there is a serious problem for the dispatching rule definition. There are some dispatching techniques using single rule and composed ones, where the main idea is to consider a good performance for the entire manufacturing system. This work presents an approach for a definition of an AGV dispatching rule based on fuzzy logic, that considers the actual status of the manufacturing system and takes the decision on real time.