DESIGN OF A SIMULATION PACKAGE FOR AUTOMATED GUIDED VEHICLE SYSTEMS

The lack of analytical techniques in designing optimal network configurations and control policies in Automated Guided Vehicle Systems (AGVS) leaves simulation as the designer's primary tool. ASP is a general purpose AGVS Simulation Package developed in SIMAN and FORTRAN. This interactive package is designed to relieve the user of programming the simulation model and allow the user to input different design configurations quickly. The package consists of an interactive user interface, a model file which contains the generic portion of the system model and an experiment file which contains user defined parameters which are problem specific. The user enters the network topology, vehicle operating characteristics and selects system and simulation control policies. Waiting time at each intersection and station and total system time are the general output of the package and may be further analyzed using the SIMAN Output Processor.