Abstract
A square arrayed manufacturing system (SAMS) is one of the agile manufacturing systems proposed to cope with the dynamically varying market demands in recent years. AGV system with mesh type paths considered in this study represents the AGV system of SAMS of which operation plays a key role for its overall performance. The selection of an AGV to transport a work and selection of paths to the destination node for an AGV are two essential decisions in AGV operation. This study proposes auction-based methods for these decisions. In addition to the basic auctions, time window concept is introduced to the node selection and auctions for evacuation of an AGV from its occupying node and for pre-assignment of an empty AGV to other nodes are installed to improve the performance. The effectiveness of proposed methods are investigated by simulation studies.
