Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
•
The distance to the stackers is more appropriate to return the empty tote
to a stacker nearby than sending it half way through the system.
All these factors could be considered in the decision logic of the agent
(e.g., by using some fuzzy set logic). The principal tasks of the discharger
are illustrated by the state diagram in Figure 3.17.
•
EBS elements
. Early baggage storage elements (Figure 3.18), or EBS for
short, are temporary storage elements for totes with bags for which a
discharger has not been allocated yet, as already described when defining
the concept of rush bags.
EBS is a complete research area in itself regarding optimization of EBS
elements, as totes are stored in lanes, which are released into the system
again. Planning and coordinating the totes in different lanes is not a simple
task, but was not given further attention in the project.
11.5
Agent Interactions and Ontology
The agent interactions are based on the elements responsibility and participation
in the function of the BHS, as described in the previous section. To give an
example of a delegate or mediator used in the system for a federation among the
agents, the RouteAgent is described.
There is a balance between giving agents detailed information about the
environment and maintaining an internal world model, or let agents query the
environment about information when required.
In theory, the interagent negotiations could be used to generate all information
to route totes around in the system, but that would generate too much overhead
ETS
agent
ETS
agent
ETS
agent
request status
Tote at
discharge
Tote
empty
Locating
ETSs
ETSs
found
arriving
to
te
empty
tote
Idle
Determining
route
Route
agent
Figure 3.17
Principal tasks of a discharger
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