Transporters are vehicles used to transport material items in the modeled environment. They are defined by the TransporterFleet block of the Material Handling Library.

The following Material Handling Library blocks work with transporters:

MoveByTransporter	Transports an agent by a transporter.
SeizeTransporter	Seizes a transporter from the specified TransporterFleet block. Sends the seized transporter to the specified location.
ReleaseTransporter	Releases the transporter previously seized by the SeizeTransporter block.
TransporterControl	Defines the rules of navigation within the network and the routing algorithm for path-guided transporters.
Store	Places an agent (material item) in a specified cell of a Storage or a Storage System.
Retrieve	Retrieves an agent (material item) from a Storage or a Storage System and delivers it to the specified location.

The following Process Modeling Library blocks work with transporters:

Downtime

Defines downtimes caused by failures, maintenance, or custom transporter tasks.

Depending on the navigation type, transporters move either along network paths and nodes or in free space. Additional rules for transporter fleets with path-guided navigation type, such as custom routing, are specified in the TransporterControl block. By default, transporters of the same navigation type recognize each other as obstacles, but you can also make them recognize transporters of a different navigation type.

Transporters take the rectangular nodes and polygonal nodes with restricted access into account during the calculation of their routes. Any path that even partially crosses a node where access is restricted, also becomes unavailable. If a transporter with path-guided navigation is approaching a node which becomes restricted, it will wait at the node's border until the restriction is lifted. If at this time the transporter’s route is recalculated, but the new route still demands that transporter moves through the restricted node, the transporter will exit the logical queue and enter it again.

When a transporter enters a restricted node that is currently closed via a lift or a level gate, it will stop there and wait until the node opens again. Meanwhile, in order to avoid a deadlock, the lift that brought the transporter is released and becomes available to other transporters.

The transporter movement is controlled by the MoveByTransporter block of the Material Handling Library. This block contains all the necessary parameters to seize a transporter, load it with a material item, specify its destination, and release the transporter when it reaches its destination.

In addition, it is possible to manually control the transporter’s movement using the API. This functionality comes with certain limitations, which are discussed in detail in the corresponding section of the path-guided and free space movement documentation.

When modeling more complex processes, the seize and release actions can be defined by individual blocks: SeizeTransporter and ReleaseTransporter, respectively.

Transporters can have a designated home location to return to when released or during the downtime, and they collect time utilization statistics. Additionally, the start of transporter movement can be delayed by specifying a route calculation delay in the TransporterFleet block.

Starting with version 8.9.9, AnyLogic supports multiload transporters and tugger trains. The properties to configure them are available in the new Multiload transportation section of the TransporterFleet properties.

A multiload transporter can pick up multiple items at the same time. Instead of handling a single item per trip, such a transporter carries several items simultaneously, depending on its configuration and available capacity.

Demo model: Multiload Transportation at Storage Open the model page in AnyLogic Cloud. There you can run the model or download it (by clicking Model source files). Demo model: Multiload Transportation at StorageOpen the model in your AnyLogic desktop installation.

A tugger train is a vehicle that pulls multiple material handling trailers. Define a transporter as a tugger train in the properties of the TransporterFleet block to give it additional properties and behavior specifics.

TransporterFleet only defines the general properties of the tugger train. In all other respects, they act like regular transporters and follow policies set by the SeizeTransporter, MoveByTransporter, and ReleaseTransporter blocks.

To learn more about transporter logic for tugger trains, see the separate article.

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