An automated guided vehicle routing policy reflecting the current and future state of semiconductor and LCD production lines

This paper presents an efficient policy for AGV and part routing in semiconductor and LCD production bays using information on the future state of systems where AGVs play a central role in material handling. These highly informative systems maintain a great deal of information on current and near-future status, such as the arrival and operation completion times of parts, thereby enabling a new approach for production shop control. Efficient control of AGVs is vital in semiconductor and LCD plants because AGV systems often limit the total production capacity of these very expensive plants. With the proposed procedure, the cell controller records the future events chronologically and uses this information to determine the destination and source of parts between the parts' operation machine and temporary storage. It is shown by simulation that the new control policy reduces AGV requirements and flow time of parts.