Development of a generic SIMNET II simulation package for undirectional, sideloading AGV systems

The use of simulation in the design stages of complex materials handling systems has become increasingly prevalent in recent years. Computer simulation has become so important to manufacturing system designs that Pritsker (1992) calls simulation “the premier technique of industrial engineering”. It is upon this foundation the project described in this paper has been constructed. This project describes the development of a generic simulation which can be used to model unidirectional, sideloading automatic guided vehicle (AGV) systems. Guidepath, programming logic and queuing logic are all represented through databases. New systems can be input only through changes to the database. The simulation system was developed using the SIMNET II modeling language (Taha 1988, 1992). An implementation example is also provided