A mathematical programming model for AGVS planning and control in manufacturing systems

In this paper, problems of the planning and control of automated guided vehicles in manufacturing systems are discussed. A mixed integer programming model is developed to minimize the total material handling cost in manufacturing systems. In order to solve this NP-complete problem efficiently, a decomposition approach following the Lagrangian relaxation method is used. The decomposed sub-problems can be solved by a dynamic programming method. An efficient algorithm is developed to solve the entire problem and a numerical example is presented to illustrate the method of solution.