Decentralized omnidirectional route planning and reservation for highly flexible material flow systems with small-scaled conveyor modules

Abstract

The new challenging demands of the current market must be satisfied by modern material flow systems, with higher levels of flexibility and reliability. However, the current material flow systems are not capable to fully fulfill these new requirements and therefore, new approaches must be explored, focusing on mechanical modularization, interface standardization and decentralized control. In this paper, an algorithm is proposed for a decentralized omnidirectional route planning and reservation for small-scaled material flow systems in the three regular tessellations, namely equilateral triangles, squares and regular hexagons. It is believed that the developed algorithm will facilitate the profitable realization of highly flexible material flow systems required by new market demands, by increasing flexibility, robustness as well as the range of achievable logistic tasks. For the evaluation of the presented system's behavior, a multi-agent-based simulation-tool was developed. The promising results show the capabilities and potential of the system.