Getting started

AGV Simulation Studio lets you draw an AGV network, describe how material moves through a plant and simulate a fleet over hours of operation, without writing code. This page explains the key ideas and walks you through a first complete simulation.

First simulationBuild a loop, add stations and run 8 hours in about 15 minutes. Interface tourThe header, the three workspaces, panels and docks. Scenario cookbookFleet sizing, bottlenecks, batteries and production logic, step by step. ReferenceKeyboard shortcuts, units, defaults and limits in one place.

What you can do

  • Draw the network: straight paths, curves and S-curves in millimetres, stations with pickup, drop-off, charger and parking roles, links between stations, one-way sections and exclusive traffic zones.
  • Use a floor plan: import a DWG or DXF drawing as a background and draw on top of it at the right scale.
  • Describe the plant logic: generate orders with a simple periodic rule, or build a no-code block diagram with timers, conditions, variables and chained missions.
  • Simulate the fleet: vehicles accelerate, brake, reverse, wait for traffic, return to chargers and optionally consume battery.
  • Read the numbers: completed missions, throughput, fleet utilisation, lead times, queues, bottlenecks and heatmaps, exportable to CSV or as a PDF report; every run is kept in your run archive.
  • Compare alternatives: every finished run joins a comparison table that highlights what changed and which run did best.
Scope

The studio is a planning and analysis tool. It never sends files or commands to real vehicles, and its traffic model does not certify safety or guarantee freedom from deadlocks. Work on copies of layouts, not on files connected to a running plant.

Before you begin

AGV Simulation Studio is a web application: there is nothing to install. You need a recent desktop browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari). Hardware graphics acceleration (WebGL) is recommended for CAD floor plans. The interface is available in English and Italian: open the project menu (the project name at the top left) and choose Language.

Signing in

Open the studio's address and sign in. You can create an account with email and password or continue with Google or Microsoft when those providers are enabled. On first sign-in you choose a username; afterwards you can sign in with either your email or your username. Your projects are stored in a private space tied to your account and encrypted on the server. See Accounts.

Free trial servers

On a free trial deployment, a notice says that online projects are temporary: they can disappear after inactivity, restarts or updates. Use Project›Export project to download your .sim file before leaving. After a period of inactivity the first page load can take a little longer while the server wakes up.

Key concepts

TermMeaning
PathA drivable segment: a straight line, a curve (one control point) or an S-curve (two control points). Paths can be two-way or one-way.
StationA point placed on a path. Its roles decide what happens there: Pickup, Drop, Charger, Parking location, or Blocked.
LinkA named route from one station to another. When a layout contains links, vehicles travel only along chains of links.
Traffic zoneA rectangle that only one AGV at a time may occupy, used for narrow corridors and bottlenecks.
ScenarioFleet size, speeds, pickup and drop-off stations, order frequency, service times, dispatch rules and battery settings.
Plant logicAn optional block diagram that generates orders instead of the periodic generator.
Order / missionA transport from a pickup station to a drop-off station, assigned to one AGV.
RunA simulation from time zero for a chosen duration (1, 4, 8 or 24 simulated hours).

Units are fixed and explicit: geometry in millimetres, speeds in cm/s, accelerations in cm/s², times in simulated seconds.

The three workspaces

The switch in the centre of the header moves between three workspaces. Each keeps its state when you move away.

  • Draw builds the layout: paths, stations, links, traffic zones, annotations and the CAD background.
  • Plant logic defines how orders are generated with connected blocks (optional).
  • Simulate configures the scenario, runs the model, shows results and compares runs. The header button becomes available once the scenario has a pickup and a drop-off connected by an allowed route.

In a new project, open Simulate the first time with Configure simulation: in Draw, with nothing selected, the Properties panel shows a Ready to simulate checklist and that button, enabled as soon as the layout has one path and two stations.

Your first simulation in 15 minutes

You will draw a 20 m × 6 m one-way loop, place four stations and simulate two AGVs for eight hours.

1. Draw the loop

  1. Start an empty project. Click the project name at the top left and choose New scenario. You are in the Draw workspace.
  2. Choose the Path tool. Click Path in the tool rail on the left or press 4. Turn on Ortho in the canvas toolbar (or press F8) so each path is horizontal or vertical.
  3. Draw the first side. Watch the X/Y coordinates in the status bar at the bottom of the canvas. Click near (0, 0), then near (20 000, 0). The dashed preview shows the length in mm; endpoints snap to a 100 mm grid.
  4. Draw the other three sides. Start each new path exactly on the end of the previous one: a small yellow square confirms the snap. Draw (20 000, 0) → (20 000, 6 000), then (20 000, 6 000) → (0, 6 000), then (0, 6 000) → (0, 0).
  5. Frame the drawing. Click the Fit button in the canvas toolbar. Scroll with two fingers or the wheel to pan; use Ctrl + wheel or pinch to zoom.
  6. Make it one-way. Press 1 for Select, click each path and set Travel direction to A to B in Properties. Because you drew the sides in order, the loop now circulates in one direction and vehicles never meet head-on.

2. Place the stations

  1. Choose the Station tool (7) and click on the bottom side near (4 000, 0) and near (8 000, 0). Stations must be placed on a path; new stations have no role.
  2. Give them a home role. Select the first station and tick Charger; select the second and tick Parking location. AGVs start only on chargers and parking locations, one per station, and return there when idle.
  3. Add the work stations. Place a station on the right side near (20 000, 3 000) and tick Pickup. Place another on the top side near (10 000, 6 000) and tick Drop. The symbol on the canvas changes with the role: a triangle for pickup, an inverted triangle for drop-off.
No links needed yet

While a layout has no links, vehicles route directly along the paths in their allowed direction. Links become useful for larger layouts, where you want named, controlled routes between stations. See Links.

3. Configure the scenario

  1. Open the scenario. With Select, click an empty area of the canvas so nothing is selected. The Properties panel shows the Ready to simulate checklist: click Configure simulation. The side panel shows the Scenario tab with four steps; each step header shows a status dot and the current values.
  2. Pickup and drop-off. The first step is open because it needs attention. Click the suggested Use connected pair button, or tick your pickup station under Pickup stations and your drop-off under Drop-off stations. From now on the Simulate button in the header is enabled too.
  3. Fleet. Set AGV count to 2. The header shows 2/2 AGV when both vehicles have been placed. Keep the default speeds (80 cm/s on straights, 40 cm/s on curves).
  4. Orders and timing. Keep one new mission every 60 s, with 12 s to load and 12 s to unload.

4. Run and read the results

  1. Run. At the bottom of the Scenario panel, keep 8 h and click Run. The simulation restarts from zero at maximum speed and the Results tab opens with a progress bar.
  2. Watch or wait. Vehicles are light blue when idle, green while travelling on a mission or return and blue while loading or unloading. At maximum speed a small layout runs hundreds of times faster than real time; the run keeps going if you switch browser tab.
  3. Read the headline numbers. When the run ends, a notice summarises completed missions and throughput. Results shows completed missions, throughput per hour, fleet utilisation and queued orders, followed by mission times, bottlenecks and fleet usage.
  4. Compare. The finished run is added automatically to Run comparison in the bottom dock. Change AGV count to 1, click Run again, and compare the two rows: changed inputs are highlighted and the best value of each measure is marked with ▲. In this layout one AGV cannot keep up with an order every minute, so its queue keeps growing and lead times climb to over an hour; two AGVs complete about 60 missions per hour with no queue.

5. Save your project

Click Save at the top right (or press Ctrl+S) and give the project a name ending in .sim. The file contains the layout, the scenario, the plant logic and the CAD background. Results are not saved in the project: every run is kept in the Run archive, where you can reopen it and download it as ZIP, JSON or PDF.

Where to go next