I am creating a model that includes both Material Handling and ABM components. I have an Agent Type that is called "Box" and there are 5 boxes that are placed on a conveyor in main. I have another Agent Type called "Product". The boxes are expected to carry the product. As a result, the box and product are expected to move on the conveyor as one. So, I was looking for something similar to move to agent, but that only works if the agent is not moving (i.e. it won't follow the agent everywhere it would just move to its position at the time the function is called). I can think of many solutions, none being ideal. Some include:
Not really moving the product agent, instead adding an animation shape of the product in the Box agent type and turn it on and off depending on the Product's state.
Using DES blocks (pickup/dropoff), but the problem with these is they convert the two agents to one... I am looking to keep both agents, but have them move together
Using something similar to Attach Resource, but then I'll have to define my Box or Product agent as a resource type
These are some of the solutions that came to mind, but I feel there must be a smoother solution. Any suggestions? Is there an ABM function that can resolve this?
Thanks!
Related
I have an material agent that is moved from the Main agent to inside another agent (simulating a room). I can send the material agent using the Exit and Enter blocks. The 'room' agent contains a network that the material agent is being sent to.
The material agent is initially being moved in Main using a Transporter. However I'm not able to get this Transporter to follow the material agent into the room agent. The main questions is - is it possible to send a Transporter into another agent? Or does it need to remain in the agent that the Transporter Fleet is located?
Thank you.
I will correct benjamin by saying that with setEnvironment you can't do it since that's a function that is called on the agent initialization.
Instead of setEnvironment,something you do normally is to send the agent to a new population (which is the way you dynamically change environment), but it doesn't work with transporters
My answer would be that you can't do it since transporters who follow paths are defined as strict AGVs and can only move on their initial network and you can't change the network, unlike other agents.
But i'm always a bit suspicious of myself when i say something is not possible...
This should be possible with some setEnvironment() calls.
However, it is not a good setup. Think of reality: your rooms are spatially all part of the same environment: your flat (or factory or whatever). Moving from 1 room to the next does not mean you change your flat. You stay in the same environment.
You should setup your room agents like that as well: their spatial representation should reside in Main (or whatever agent they are embedded in).
Use a parameter of type ShapeRectangle or similar in your Room agent to define which rectangle (or else) represents the spatial aspect of the room.
Then, the flow chart blocks in the Room agent simply refer to that parameter for their spatial needs.
I'd like to know a very simple function of the software Anylogic: I have to set different delay times for different agents in a model, but the software let me see only one boxe and there's no possibilities to specificate what kind of delay time I prefer for every agents. How could I do? Thank you
I tried with some code of Java script but I think that scripture could be available only for the section "Actions" in the different boxes
This is one of the most basic functionalities so check the tutorials as well, but here goes:
Add a parameter 'myParameter' in your agent type of type double.
Give the agents different values for that parameter (cab be dine in the source or where ever you instantiate your agents)
In the delay block code section, use 'agent.myParameter' to access and apply that agent-specific duration.
I hope you are having a great day.
Recently, I tried to build an AnyLogic model with free-space transporters, but I encountered an unexpected situation as shown below.
I thought that there is no logical reason why all the transporters are jammed in a specific position. Is there any solution or possible reason for this situation? I have attached my model for your information.
Thank you for reading this question.
The problem with the traffic jam appears to be due to the fact that there are two few attractors available for the transporters to place the items and then they get stuck waiting for an attractor to become available...
When running your model as-is I get a jam in the stage one area
And in the logic blocks, I can see that the transports are stuck in the "Move By Transporter" block.
If I assume the attractors are set to 4 for a reason I would suggest the following logic - similar to what is described here
You create a list of all the attractors available. See the neat trick in AnyLogic where if you select a bunch of objects and then right-click on them you can automatically create a collection.
You can call it something like attractorsAvailabeStage1
And create a new map to store the WIP agents that will be occupying the attractors
And have a function that will provide the available attractors.
Change the move by transporter option to move to an attractor
And also return the attractor as available once it gets moved from its location
Now you only need to prevent mew agents from entering the area if there is no more attractors left or agents on their way to the attractors
I tested it and it works great for stage 1 you need to do it for all the stages.
On second thought....
seeing that you do have resource pools and service blocks. You can achieve the same logic I described by having resources first size the locations, then go to the transport block, and then be delayed
You first seize the space in the stage, then you move to the space, then you delay it.... then you wait, then seize the space in stage 2, then move there, then release stage 1.
I would go for the latter option
I have in my model some free-moving agents, which travel to specific nodes. I use the function...
moveTo(node)
...to specify the node an agent should visit. Using this function, the agent travels the shortest path to the node. However, the model layout contains areas (i.e. image files), which the agent should not pass. Right now, the agents may travel through these areas to reach their destination. Now I'm wondering, whether there is an easy way to permit an agent to enter specific areas in the model, when traveling to a node.
I already took a look at the example model "Wandering Elephants" where the elephants are permitted to walk through areas with water. The solution there is, that if an elephant meets water in the direction it's currently heading, it randomly searches for another direction, until it finds one without water. However, this approach doesn't really fit to my problem, as the elephants in the model wander around without any specific destination. I'm searching for a method, which works for an agent that travels to a specific point. In the best case, the agent would search the shortest path around the obstacle to reach its destination.
Edit 1: The following figure shows my problem in a nutshell. On the left side is my model structure, while on the right side the state chart of my custom agent. What is happening in the model: The 3 sources are producing agents, which will be delayed for an uncertain time (delay stops with stopDelay()). Everytime an agent enters a delay, the delay is added to the collection request. My customagent check requests in a loop until the collection contains at least one request. Then, the customagent randomly selects a request (i.e. delay object) to serve. Each delay is associated with a node (the collection processNodes maps delays to nodes). Now, I want to cast my customagent to a Transporter and move it to the corresponding node. The agent should avoid collisions with the stripped walls in the model. I want to avoid any seizing and releasing of resources. I just want to adapt the behaviour of the Transport agent from the material handling library to my agent.
Edit 2:
In my current testbed, my custom agent does not consider node 1 or node 2. For testing, the agent should only try to reach node without any collisions.
I found a sufficient work-around. Not exactly what I wanted, but it works. Against my initial intention, I use now seize and release for transports. However, I added a hold-block in front of each seized-block and only a resource, which decides to serve the process, is able to unblock the corresponding hold. The on-enter control of the unblocked hold ensures that the hold is directly blocked again as soon as a single agent flows through. For the case that other users are also interested in the solution, I attached the flow-chart of the process and the state-chart of the Transporter-Agent. The system structure is quite the same as in my initial question.
There is no build-in way unless you use transporters from the Material handling library (or pedestrians). These can do what you need.
So easiest might be to convert you agents to transporters temporarily.
Otherwise, you will have to code something yourself...
I'm am storing agents two deep in a single pallet rack with a rackStore block. When I take items out of the rack with rackStore it tries the take the agents at the back first and I get the error below saying it couldn't be picked as there are other agents in front of it.
Anyone know how I can pick from the front instead?
This is big fail in the AnyLogic Software and it is something they have to fix urgently. Since when it comes to deep positions, you have to control everything manually.
I will give you an example that is definitely not optimal on how to solve your particular question and it will be just a step for you to understand how to extend it to something more than this. Because even though this should be a very easy question, it is not. This will work only 2 racks with 2 levels deep, 1 level of height, and a unique row.
So this is the structure you would need:
Since I have no idea how long your products stay on the rack, I will assume something, which is that with the event, I will make the decision on wether getting or not a product from the rack every 5 seconds (this is absolutely arbitrary).
You will need a custom agent to store the deep position. I call the agent Box and I will have a population of boxes. Not in the picture that I also add agents to the custom population boxes.The box agent will have 2 variables: deep and position which will store the position and deep level of the agent in the rack (you will need also level and row if you have a more complex rack)
Now on the event, which runs cyclically every 5 seconds, I have the following action: (it activates if there is a box waiting, if there is a resource available and if there is no forklift moving a product to the pallet rack) I have to do this because I cannot know where the forklift is going to put the box until the box is already in the pallet rack. Then I check if a box is not behind another with the findFirst function and if everything ok, a box is sent to be picked.
if(wait.size()>0 && resourcePool.idle()>0 && rackStore.size()==0){
Box bx=findFirst(wait,b->b.deep==0);
if(bx!=null)
wait.free(bx);
}
On the rackStore exit I need to store the positions so in the "on exit" action, this code will help (you check if there is another box in the same position, and if there is, you update the value of the deep variable. Then you store the value of the position and deep of the new agent)
Box box=findFirst(wait,b->b.position==position);
if(box!=null){
box.deep++;
}
agent.deep=0;
agent.position=position;
Finally on the rackPick on exit action, once the product is picked and delivered, you update the deep value of the box that was behind it (if any)
Box bx2=findFirst(wait,b->b.position==agent.position);
if(bx2!=null){
bx2.deep--;
}
I know all this looks a bit crazy, but you have to create all the logic yourself when it comes to using deep levels...