Modelling and Analysis of an Integrated Automated Guided Vehicle System using Coloured Petri Net

vehicle system which is embedded in a multi-product, multi-line, multi-stage flexible manufacturing system. Three different guide path configurations have been developed for this study and the performance of the manufacturing system has been discussed from the perspective of these configurations. The system has been modeled through coloured Petri net method and some of the results are presented I. INTRODUCTION In modern manufacturing environments, automated guided vehicle systems （AGVS） have become an integral part of overall manufacturing systems. An AGVS contains one or more Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) which are driverless vehicles used for horizontal movement of materials. AGVs are commonly used in facilities such as manufacturing plants, distribution centers, warehouses and transshipments. While designing an AGVS, many strategic, tactical and operational issues have to be considered. The main ones are: guide path design, estimating the number of vehicles required, vehicle scheduling, routing and deadlock resolution. An AGVS is a discrete event dynamical system (DEDS) which is event driven, asynchronous and non-deterministic in nature. Petri Net are powerful techniques to model such systems in that they can handle complex system modeling concepts and constraints. Moreover, coloured Petri net (CPN) provides compact models of large systems with a higher level of abstraction [1]. Hence, this study uses CPN method for modeling the system.