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