Performance of two real time control strategies for AGV systems: A case study

Real time control of material handling devices is essential to guarantee efficiency and flexibility of automated manufacturing systems. This paper presents a performance based comparison of two control policies previously presented by one of the authors to avoid deadlock and collisions in zone controlled Automated Guided Vehicle Systems (AGVSs). Coloured Timed Petri Nets are used to model the dynamics of AGVSs and implement the control strategies stemming from the knowledge of the system state. Several simulations of an AGVS with varying fleet size show the effectiveness of one of the considered control strategies compared to the alternative policy.