CHESS - A METHODOLOGY FOR RESOLVING SCHEDULING AND DISPATCH PROBLEMS IN FMSS

The objective of the research, presented herein, was to determine whet her or not the makespan performance of an FMS could be improved by a m ethodology which draws parallels with the actions of a human chess pla yer in resolving decision problems in an environment where optimal sol utions were computationally intractable with current processing techno logies. The methodology was given the acronym CHESS (Control Heuristic Embedded System Simulator) and provides a mechanism for using short-t erm simulation look-aheads to resolve contention problems. The researc h also sought to determine the relationship between performance improv ement and ''look-ahead distance.'' The results of the research highlig ht the fact that the methodology could provide considerable reductions in the number of contentions and the makespan time for a given range of part types (approximately 20 percent for the test-case applications ). The most pertinent results, however, are those that highlight the e ffectiveness of look-ahead distance in terms of improving system perfo rmance, and these may have a potential to provide a significant impact in a range of differed areas.