Simulation and Visualization of Automated Guided Vehicle Systems in a Real Production Environment

Low-cost Automated Guided Vehicle Systems (AGVS) play an increasing role for the automation of production plants. For complex installations, a simulation of the transport system should be performed during the planning phase in order to check for possible problems and to optimize parameters. During operation of complex AGVS a visualization of the whole system is desirable in order to allow a continuous monitoring. Since most of the relevant tasks have to be performed for simulation and visualization as well, we constructed an integrated tool which is able to deal with both jobs. As an example for operation of the simulation tool, results are presented for the calculation of the number of vehicles for optimal performance of an AGVS given a layout and a transport matrix.