Multi-Agent Simulation for Flexible Job-Shop Scheduling ProblemWith Traffic-Aware Routing

This paper addresses the Flexible Job Shop Scheduling Problem (FJSSP) with transportation tasks between processing machines ensured by Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs). It aims to study the effect of two operational constraints, usually neglected in literature, namely the traffic interactions between AGVs and loading/unloading operations. A multi-agent simulator is developed to simulate and analyse the system and to test some hypothesis. The proposed approach is tested on two scenarios: with and without collision avoidance assumption. Results have shown that collision avoidance assumption adds extra time to the Makespan. However, these results bring us closer to reality and highlight the need to take into account such interactions in the advanced planning/scheduling of production and transportation tasks in flexible manufacturing systems (FMS).