Agent Module Example Models

[#1]

As many of you have seen from our youtube video, we recently released an early beta version of a new FlexSim Agent module. This module can be downloaded from the Downloads section of your FlexSim account, under the Modules tab.

Note that the Agent module will only work properly with FlexSim 20.1.1 or later.

Here I'm posting some of the models I created and showed on the video.

BasicProximitySystem.fsm

TwoPhaseAGVSystem.fsm

OnePhaseAGVSystem.fsm

Boids.fsm

AStarSystem.fsm

RoomEvacuation.fsm

HallwayTravel.fsm

The AGV models aren't perfect (there's some tweaking needed, and there are some bugs that need to be fixed), put I'm putting them out there anyway.

Since this is a beta version, I'm going to just upload unannounced module updates to the downloads section, so you can check the dates/versions on the downloads page against the version you have installed if you want to get the latest and greatest.

[sudheer_r]

@anthony.johnson here you mentioned AGV model aren't perfect and there's some tweaking needed. Still with new versions like 21.2 this hold or it got rectified?

If it got rectified could you post updated AGV models and also few more examples of agent based model for AGV systems.

So we can see full potential of agent based modelling in FlexSim

[anthony_johnsonT83CM]

When I said they weren't perfect, I was speaking of the models themselves, not the Agent system or AGV system. There is nothing in the Agent system or AGV systems that needs to be fixed. What I was pointing to that wasn't perfect was the heuristic that determined whether an object was "in front of" an AGV. If an object gets into proximity with an AGV, and it is "in front of" the AGV, then the AGV should stop. If an object is "behind" the AGV, then the AGV should continue so that it will get out of proximity. I was doing some geometric math that held up most of the time, but not all the time, especially when they were on a turn. So, if you want to "fix" this, then you should come up with a better heuristic for determining when another AGV was "in front" of a given AGV, or in other words, better logic to determine whether an AGV should actually stop vs. continue when it comes into proximity with another object. And that heuristic may be dependent on the specific situation that you are simulating, or based on the actually hardware (sensors, etc.) that will be installed in real life. So I don't know if I could give you a "catch all" heuristic.

[sudheer_r]

@anthony.johnson thank you for the clarification.

Just like AGV tutorials in the manual , if possible could you please add one or two agent based tutorials in manual.

[anthony_johnsonT83CM]

I'll add this suggestion for our documentation guy.

As a side note and further explanation, some of the changes I was making to the model in your other question were specifically changes to the heuristic that determined when an AGV should stop. Admittedly there's a little bit of an art to it. You try different things and see how they work, and iteratively improve as you go.