Mobile Objects (MUs)

Plant Simulation provides these mobile objects to model the flow of materials through a simulation model. The mobile objects are abbreviated as MU, for Mobile Unit, or MUs, for Mobile Units.

• The Container for transporting other parts. It might represent pallets, bins, boxes, etc. in your plant into which parts are placed.

• The Part for modeling parts being produced and transported, but not transporting other work pieces.

• The Transporter for modeling self-propelled vehicles allowing it to drive on its own Track/ TwoLaneTrack and transporting Parts, Containers and other Transporters. You can hitch up several Transporters to create Tugger Trains.

  You can also model automatically guided vehicle-systems with the Transporter and with the Resource Objects AGVPool and Marker where the Transporter is not bound to a fixed route network.

Note that we call a single mobile object MU and several mobile object MUs in the program and in the help.

As opposed to the material flow objects proper, the mobile objects are not bound to a fixed location. Initially a Source creates the MU from an MU class in the Class Library. It is then moved to the different stations in the model along the material flow connections. The stations process the MU. The MU remains on the final station of its movement until it is removed from the plant, usually by a Drain .

During the simulation run the MU is either located on a material flow object, or on an MUwith loading capabilities, such as a Container or a Transporter. The material flow objects either move the MU along the material flow connections, symbolized by the Connector , to the next object in line, or the flow of material is controlled by Method objects.

The length-oriented objects Conveyor, Turnplate, Turntable, Track, and TwoLaneTrack use the actual MU length of the mobile objects, while all other material flow objects ignore the length of the MU. The AngularConverter use the MU length and the MU width.

Compare the sample models: Click the Window ribbon tab, click Start Page > Getting Started > Example Models, and click Small Examples. Then, select the respective Category, the Topic, and the Examplein the dialog Examples Collectionand click Open Model.

Related Topics

Shared Properties of the Mobile Objects

Shared Properties of the Material Flow Objects