Development of dispatching rules for automated guided vehicle systems

Abstract

This paper proposes a new automated guided vehicle (AGV) dispatching algorithm based on a bidding concept. The suggested algorithm utilizes the information of work in process in incoming and outgoing buffers of a machine center, and travel time of an AGV through mathematical functions that are called "bidding functions" in this paper. Because the bidding functions have parameters, a sensitivity test is performed to find their appropriate values. The performance of the algorithm is compared with those of well-known existing rules in terms of system throughput through simulation on a hypothetical job shop type manufacturing system.