is it possible to change the direction of the path in the PaletteRack during the simulation run ?
Background : we have special aisles (PaletteRack) in our warehouse simulation, where we want to allow transporters to enter only from one direction - e.g. block the entrance from the opposite direction and after the transporter leave the aisle unblock that entrance again
You cant change the direction of path in runtime unfortunately. Path network (incl. all paths directions) is kind of a rigid thing that is not modifiable after model start. But there is a workaround - use two restricted areas on both ends of the aisle. To implement the rules for entering those areas will require a bit of coding. Short example: area1 should be open for all transporters (if its the end from which entrance is allowed), but area2 should only allow entrance for those transporters which are already inside the aisle.
Related
I would like to use transporters in my model in various places (tugboats, forklifts, reach stackers, trucks, etc.). However, my model paths and animation can't be drawn to scale, detailed explanation in brackets below.
Is there a way I can move the transporter from one node to another based on travel time (similar to what a movable resource can do), rather than speed and distance?
The "Move By Transporter" block does not seem to allow this and I have not been able to find a solution online. Thank you for your help.
(Explanation on why I can't draw to scale: firstly, some destination locations (storage areas, etc.) are not known yet and will just be represented by a travel delay to get there, secondly, different areas of the model will be drawn to different scales, i.e. some network paths will represent a multiple kilometers and some network paths will only represent a few hundred meters, etc.)
You can draw the paths to suit your animation and then simply set the speed of the transporter that gets seized to a speed so that the duration of the movement matches what you need it to be, and when the transporter gets released set the speed back to normal
I have a warehouse model where "Picker" agents move along the Y-axis to reach the front of a "picking slot" agent.
I would like to make it so that upon arrival in front of the picking slot, the Picker agents face the picking slot.
I am aware of the "Set rotation upon arrival" feature of the MoveTo blocks, but I am having trouble making sense out of it. What sort of value should I input here?
Is it possible to dynamically define the rotation according the the agents' relative location to each other? If so, how should I go about it? Some of the slots are on the left of the picker, and others on the right.
Thank you.
Please have a look at the Wholesale Warehouse example in the sample models (help section of AnyLogic). There they use agent.agent_image.setRotation(-PI) and then turn it into initial position with agent_image.setRotation(0) You can use this dynamically and with if conditions in your blocks.
I have a layout defined for agents to move from one rectangular node to another, based on a list in a database. So for example, agent 1 will go to 'lane' 701, then on to 702, etc.
The layout looks like this:
example of layout
The agents move enter from the top left, along the x to the end of that row, then down to the bottom and out to the right, visiting the 'lanes' on their way.
However, I've noticed that one agent has its first lane in the bottom right so rather than following the path across and then down, it's using the shortest distance and moving on the diagonal straight to the lane in the corner:
movement behaviour
Is there something in the software that I can set to strictly follow the paths set? I cannot work out why the agent is breaking the path so I can only assume it's something I am missing.
in the first place, your agent is doing this diagonal probably because you have 2 different networks... if your destination is not in the current network, then the agent will use the shortest distance to the destination, which seems to be your case.
On the other hand, you can't control how the agents move on your network, and it will always take the shortest path or some optimized option... in order to make them follow the path you want, you need to generate intermediary destinations.
I am developing (or atleast trying to develop)
a decently big real time tactics game (something similar to RTS) using SpriteKit.
I am using GamePlay kit for pathfinding.
Initially I used SKActions to move the sprites within the Path but fast enough I realized that it was a big mistake.
Then I tried to implement it with GKAgents (this is my current state)
I feel that GKAgents are very raw and premature also they are following some strange Newton Law #1 that makes them to move forever (I can't think of any scenario where it would be useful - maybe for presentations at WWDC)
as well as I see that they have some Angular speed to perform rotations
which I don't need at all and can't really find how to disable it...
As well as GKBehaviors given a GKGoals seems to make some weird thing...
Setting behavior to avoid obstacles makes my units to joggle around them...
Setting behavior with follow path goal completely ignores everything unless the maxPredictionTime is low enough...
I am not even willing to tell what happens when I combine both them.
I feel broken...
I feel like I have 2 options now:
1) to struggle more with those agents and trying to make them behave as I wish
2) To roll all the movement on my own with help by GKObstacleGraph and a path Finding (which is buggy as well I have to say at some points the path to the point will generate the most awful path like "go touch that obstacle then reverse touch that one then go to the actual point (which from the beginning could be achieved by a straight line)").
Question is:
What would be the best out of those options ?
One of the best ways (in SpriteKit/GameplayKit) to get the kind of behavior you're after is to recognize that path planning and path following need not be the same operation. GameplayKit provides tools for both — GKObstacleGraph is good for planning and GKAgent is good for following a planned path — and they work best when you combine the strengths of each.
(It can be a bit misleading that GKAgent provides obstacle avoidance; don't think of this in the same way as finding a route around obstacles, more like reacting to sudden obstacles in your way.)
To put it another way, GKObstacleGraph and GKAgent are like the difference between navigating with a map and safely driving a car. The former is where you decide to take CA-85 and US-101 instead of I-280. (And maybe reevaluate your decision once in awhile — say, to pick a different set of roads around a traffic jam.) The latter is where you, continuously moment-to-moment, change lanes, avoid potholes, pass slower vehicles, slow down for heavy traffic, etc.
In Apple's DemoBots sample code, they break this out into two steps:
Use GKObstacleGraph to do high level path planning. That is, when the bad guys are "here" and the hero is "way over there", and there are some walls in between, select a series of waypoints that roughly approximates a route from here to there.
Use GKAgent behaviors to make the character roughly follow that path while also reacting to other factors (like making the bad guys not step on each other and giving them vaguely realistic movement curves instead of simply following the lines between waypoints).
You can find most of the relevant stuff behind this in TaskBotBehavior.swift in that sample code — start from addGoalsToFollowPath and look at both the places that gets called and the calls it makes.
As for the "moving forever" and "angular speed" issues...
The agent simulation is a weird mix of a motivation analogy (i.e. the agent does what's needed to move it toward where it "wants" within constraints) and a physics system (i.e. those movements are modeled like forces/impulses). If you take away an agent's goals, it doesn't know that it needs to stop — instead, you need to give it a goal of stopping. (That is, a movement speed goal of zero.) There might be a better model than what Apple's chosen here — file bugs if you have suggestions for design improvements.
Angular speed is trickier. The notion of agents' intrinsic physical constraints being sort of analogous to, say, vehicles on land or boats at sea is pretty well baked into the system. It can't really handle things like space fighters that have to reorient to vector their thrust, or walking creatures that can just as happily walk sideways or backwards as forward — at least, not on its own. You can get some mileage toward changing the "feel" of agent movement with the maxAcceleration property, but you're limited by the fact that said property covers both linear and angular acceleration.
Remember, though, that the interface between what the agent system "wants" and what "actually happens" in your game world is under your control. The easiest way to implement GKAgentDelegate is to just sync the velocity and position properties of the agent and the sprite that it represents. However, you don't have to do it that way — you could calculate a different force/impulse and apply it to your sprite.
I can't comment yet so I post as an answer. I faced the same problem recently: agent wiggling around the target or the agent that keeps moving even if you remove the behavior. Then I realized that the behavior is just the algorithm controling the movement, but you can still access and set the agent's speed, position and angle by hand.
In my case, I have a critter entity that chases for food in the scene. When it makes contact with the food agent, the food entity is removed. I tried many things to make the critter stop after eating the food (it would keep going in a straight line). And all I had to do was to set its speed to 0. That is because the behavior will influence not the position directly, but the speed/angle combination instead (from what I understand). When there is no goal for the entity, it doesn't "want" to change it's state, so whatever speed and direction it reached, it will keep. It will simply not update/change it. So unless you create a goal to make it want to stop, it will wiggle/keep going. The easy way is to set the behavior to nil and set the speed to 0 yourself.
If the behavior/goal system doesn't do it for the type of animation you are looking for, you can still use the Agent system and customize the movement with the AgenDelegate protocol and the update method and make it interact with other agents later on. You can even synchronize the agent with a node that is moved with the physics engine or with actions (or any other way).
I think the agent system is nice to keep around since you can use it later, even if it's only for special effects. But just as mixing actions and physics can give some weird results, mixing goal/behaviors and any other "automated" tool will probably result in an erratic behavior.
You can also use the agent system for other stuff than moving an actual sprite around. For example, you could use an agent to act as a "target seeker" to simulate reaction time for your enemies. The agent moves around the scene and finds other agents, when it makes contact with a suitable target, the enemy entity would attack it (random idea).
It's not a "one size fits all" solution, but it's a very nice tool to have.
I've created a Dymola model. It has an empty tank, which is connected to the output of sweptVolume component via a static pipe. Input to the sweptVolume is a constant force, with the help of which I would like to transport water from the hydraulic cylinder to the tank.
I've assumed the cross sectional area of the piston. I've calculated the force that is needed to displace the water in the cylinder assuming the pressure to be atmospheric (101.325kPa). But, somehow I see the water is not getting displaced and the volume is remaining constant without filling the tank.
Please suggest, what type of input should be given for the sweptVolume element (position,move etc.), in case the given input constant force is wrong.
I would like to thank you for your time and interest.
the way to setup initial conditions it is only a matter of GUI, just add "flange(s(start=1, fixed=true))" in add modifiers tab of the sweptVolume parameter dialog in Dymola. To get your model work just invert the sign of the force, the sign convention for the force block is displayed by the arrow, so to compress the piston and fill the tank have to set the const value to minus something. Check the fluid volumes since you will get the model to stop when tank overflows or when piston stroke reaches the end (negative value of s). So you have to setup correctly the forces, or the tank and piston volumes or place some kind of stop to the mechanic part of the piston. The model can work fine even without masses added to the piston.
Hope this helps,
Marco