Expected duration: 1 - 2 weeks A car production factory is planned to be completely automated and serviced by robot agents. Metal sheets are delivered to the factory at regular intervals. Carrier robots then collect a sheet from the metal store and deliver it to sheet metal cutter agents who press the required shapes out of the sheet metal. The cut sheets are then taken to the welder agents, by the carrier robot agents, who weld the panels together to form a skeleton car body. The carrier agents then take the car bodies to the riveter agents, who finish the skeleton car bodies. The car bodies are then taken, by the carriers, to a storage area and from there loaded onto vans and taken to another facility for further processing. The cutters, welders and riveters are stationary and are maintained with power through a continuous fixed connection. Robots, which transport the sheets or car bodies use 1 unit of energy when travelling unladen and 2 units when transporting anything per simulation cycle. When their energy level becomes low robots must return to a robot room to recharge. They recharge at a rate of 5 units per simulation cycle. There are two quality levels of car body ‘Prestige’ and ‘Standard’. Each order may be either ‘Prestige’ or ‘Standard’. Both welders can produce ‘standard’ car bodies but only a specialised welder can produce the ‘Prestige’ version. The specialist welders take 7 simulation cycles to weld a car body together, whilst the other welder s takes 4 cycles.
