Scheduling of machines and automated guided vehicles in FMS using differential evolution.

This paper addresses the problem of simultaneous scheduling of machines and two identical automated guided vehicles (AGVs) in a flexible manufacturing system (FMS). For solving this problem, a new meta-heuristic differential evolution (DE) algorithm is proposed. The problem consists of two interrelated problems, scheduling of machines and scheduling of AGVs. A simultaneous scheduling of these, in order to minimise the makespan will result in a FMS being able to complete all the jobs assigned to it at the earliest time possible, thus saving resources. An increase in the performance of the FMS under consideration would be expected as a result of making the scheduling of AGVs as an integral part of the overall scheduling activity. The algorithm is tested by using problems generated by various researchers and the makespan obtained by the algorithm is compared with that obtained by other researchers and analysed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]