Modelling battery constraints in discrete event automated guided vehicle simulations

SUMMARY This paper investigates a commonly omitted aspect of Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) simulation—battery modelling. Battery usage is frequently overlooked in simulation for a variety of reasons. First, it is incorrectly believed to have minimal impact on system operation. Second, many analysts do not have an understanding of how batteries power AGVs. Third, battery analysis requires additional input information and varies for different AGV vendors. This paper contains several methods that can be used to account for the impact of various battery usage schemes on AGV simulations. These methods range from general philosophies to detailed model-specific coding examples.