Scheduling of AGVs and machines in FMS with makespan criteria using sheep flock heredity algorithm

Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of simultaneous scheduling of machines and two identical automated guided vehicles (AGVs) in a flexible manufacturing system (FMS) so as to minimize makespan and mean tardiness. For solving this problem, a sheep flock heredity algorithm is proposed. An increase in the performance of the FMS under consideration would be expected as a result of making the scheduling of AGVs an integral part of the overall scheduling activity. For this particular problem, coding has been developed, which gives optimum sequence with makespan value and AGV’S schedule for ten job sets and four layouts. Most of the time, results of sheep flock algorithm are better than other algorithm and traditional methods. Key words: Scheduling, AGVs, FMS.