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CW 478
Danny Weyns, Nelis Boucké, Tom Holvoet, and Bart Demarsin
DynCNET: A protocol for flexible transport assignment in AGV transportation systems
Abstract
In this work, the experiences with the proposed communication protocol
DynCNET are reported. The idea of the communication protocol is based on
the different states and actions an agent has to
accomplish during his tasks. All the states are in a scheme: the
statemachine. First, using XML, the statemachines are interpreted by the
program. Second, the AGV agents and Transport agents are constructed
with their own statemachine and integrated in the simulator. Finally the
behaviour of the agents is implemented. The result is a standalone
program that simulates the behaviour of AGV agents and Transport agents
in a simulated environment. Several tests are conducted with the DynCNET
protocol. The results of the tests are compared with the CNET protocol
and the Field-based approach. The DynCNET protocol outperforms CNET on
all performance measures. The cost of this increase in efficiency is a
doubling of the required bandwidth. Contrary to the expectations,
DynCNET is in general not able to outperform the Field-based approach.
At best, DynCNET is able to equal the performance of Field-based
transport assignment.
With respect to exibility, DynCNET and the Field-based approach are of
the same quality. A statistical analysis has been performed. This shows,
with a significance of 95%, that the results are statistically
significant and that the influence of time can be ruled out.
The tests show that DynCNET is able to assign transports more flexible
and that the efficiency of transport assignment is increased. A great
advantage of the DynCNET protocol is the explicitness of the protocol.
This leads to better understanding of the overall behaviour of transport
assignment in the system and makes it easier to reason about the behaviour.
