Bio-inspired and pheromone-based shop-floor control

Abstract

Autonomous control means the decentralized coordination of intelligent logistic objects and the routing through a logistic system by the intelligent parts themselves. This paper shows the application of a pheromone-based autonomous control method to a matrix model of a shop floor and compares the performance to an earlier developed method in different dynamic demand situations. The discrete event simulations are analysed by comparing statistics on throughput time data resulting from the system's behaviour in dynamic order arrival situations.

Keywords:

• Logistics
• Autonomous control
• Modelling
• Simulation

Acknowledgements

This research is founded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) as part of the Collaborative Research Centre 637 ‘Autonomous Cooperating Logistic Processes: A Paradigm Shift and its Limitations’ (SFB 637) at the university of Bremen.