Transfer Control of Conveyers in Ore Yard by Autonomous Decentralized Agents

In steel works, iron ores are stored in ore yard and sent to various plants in down stream according to transfer requests. To attain stable operations of steel works, it is necessary to keep a certain safety stock level in ore tanks of all plants. To attain this purpose, a novel ore transfer routing method has been developed based on a decentralized agent method. In case of disaster such as a big earthquake or a big fire, damages in the facilities of industrial complex may be unavoidable. In this paper, a decentralized optimization method is tested if it is able to cope with such emergencies. A decentralized agent corresponding to the kind of ore makes its own transfer route plan exchanging information with others. As the application of the proposed method, transfer scheduling in ore yard in steel works are made in case of destruction of the transfer facilities. Further, application of the proposed route planning method to the analysis of distribution of transfer loads for conveyers is described.