A bio-inspired scheduling approach for machines and automated guided vehicles in flexible manufacturing system using hormone secretion principle

Abstract

The product quality and production efficiency of a flexible manufacturing system have improved effectively by introducing the computer management and the material transportation system. The flexible manufacturing system performance greatly depends on the performance of the material transportation system. As a mobile robot controlled by a central controller, an automated guided vehicle has a strong ability for material transportation. This article studies a dynamic scheduling problem in a shop floor, where machines and automated guided vehicles run at a specified speed and specifies a mathematical model for the dynamic scheduling problem with the goal of makespan minimization. Meanwhile, inspired by the hormone secretion principle of the endocrine system, a bio-inspired scheduling optimization approach is developed to solve the dynamic scheduling problem in the flexible manufacturing system. To verify its practical application, the bio-inspired scheduling optimization approach and other scheduling approaches are tested, and the results illustrate that the bio-inspired scheduling optimization approach has better scheduling performance as well as optimizes the quality of integrated and real-time scheduling of machines and automated guided vehicles.