Links, speeds and traffic

Paths say where a vehicle can drive. Links, travel directions, speeds and traffic zones say how it drives there: which routes it takes, how fast, and when it has to wait for others.

How vehicles choose a route

The router never invents a way that the layout does not allow. It works in one of two modes, decided by the layout itself:

• No links in the layout: vehicles travel along the connected paths directly, respecting each path's travel direction. This is the quickest way to start.
• At least one link: vehicles travel only along chains of links, station to station. Among the possible chains, the router picks the fastest by nominal travel time.

A transport only needs an allowed route from its pickup to its drop-off; a way back is not required to accept it. After unloading, the next order is planned from where the vehicle actually is.

Links

With the Link tool (8), click the source station, then the destination station. The app searches the shortest allowed sequence of paths, in millimetres, between the two and creates the link. If a link with the same source and destination exists already, it is selected instead.

The link inspector shows:

• Name, Source and Destination;
• Link speed (cm/s), or Use default speed;
• Zones required to be clear (see Zone conditions on links);
• Calculated sequence: the IDs of the paths the link follows. Click an ID to select that path;
• Recalculate route, Create return link and Delete.

Links are one-way. For a return trip, press Create return link: return links are never created automatically.

One-way paths

Each path has a Travel direction: both ways, A to B, or B to A. Arrows on the selected path show it. One-way loops are the simplest way to avoid head-on encounters.

The router respects the direction when it creates links. If you change a direction later, existing links that now run against it become unusable but are not deleted: select the link and press Recalculate route to recompute its sequence.

Speeds and motion

Default speeds are set in the scenario (Simulate → Scenario → Fleet): 80 cm/s on straights, 40 cm/s on curves, 40 cm/s² acceleration and 60 cm/s² braking deceleration. You can override them on the layout:

So one link can cross sections with different speeds. Reset all layout speeds to defaults in the Fleet step removes every custom speed on links and paths in one undoable step.

Vehicles accelerate progressively and brake in advance before slower sections, curves, stops and the limit of the space granted by traffic control. Before reversing, even within the same link, a vehicle stops completely and then accelerates in the opposite direction. It is a simple longitudinal model: no steering or grip dynamics.

Local collision avoidance

Outside traffic zones, each vehicle reserves only the space it is about to sweep, extended by its braking distance, using a circular footprint whose size is the scenario's Minimum distance between AGV centres (1000 mm by default). If the space ahead is taken, it brakes and waits; it resumes as soon as the obstacle moves. Waiting vehicles still occupy their space.

Exclusive traffic zones

A traffic zone is a rectangle that one AGV at a time may occupy. Use it on narrow corridors, single-lane passages and crossings where two vehicles must never meet.

1. Draw the zone. Choose Zone (9) and drag a rectangle over the bottleneck, including its entrances up to the branches where vehicles can wait clear of the exit.
2. Adjust it. With Select or Edit, click the border to select the zone, drag a corner to resize it or the interior to move it. Paths inside never move. You can also type Minimum X, Maximum X, Minimum Y and Maximum Y and a Zone name in the inspector.
3. Check it. The inspector tells how many paths cross the rectangle. A zone that intersects no path shows a warning.

How a zone works during the simulation:

• A vehicle reserves the zone on entry and keeps it during stops inside it, until it has physically left. The zone is not released at the end of a mission or after a timeout.
• Other vehicles approach up to the protected boundary and wait there.
• Links that are only partly inside, and movements without explicit links, are protected as well. The clearance margin comes automatically from the minimum distance.
• Overlapping or very close zones are merged automatically into one.
• If a pickup or drop-off is inside a zone, the vehicle needs an allowed route to a charger or parking outside the zone to leave it; only the exit space is reserved, not the whole return.

A layout can have up to 100 traffic zones.

Zone conditions on links

A link can require one or more zones to be clear before the vehicle passes the link's source. In the link inspector, Zones required to be clear lists every zone:

• zones that contain the link's destination are ticked automatically and marked automatic; they follow the destination and the zone boundaries (the border counts as inside);
• tick other zones to add manual conditions. All automatic and manual zones must be clear.

The check happens while the vehicle approaches the source of each link, including intermediate links of a longer trip. If the zones are clear, it continues without stopping. If a required zone is occupied, it brakes early and waits at the source of the link; if the zone frees up during braking, it can accelerate again without stopping. The Active table in the dock shows the link, the occupied zones and the AGV that holds them.

Layout design tips

• Prefer one-way loops with short two-way spurs to stations.
• Protect every single-lane section that vehicles can enter from both ends with an exclusive zone that includes the entrances.
• Keep chargers and parking out of the main flow, and spaced at least the minimum distance apart.
• After editing directions or geometry, select each link and press Recalculate route.
• Run a short simulation and look at the Entry waits and Waiting hotspots heatmaps to see where traffic stalls (see Heatmaps).