Manual Lift Assist

I need to model a manual lift assist device and I would like it to be as graphically accurate as possible without being too complicated. Ideally it should be shown as a crane with an operator 'walking it' to different locations to pick the parts.

I've attached simple model to illustrate the type of thing I want to show. This model has the operator utilised while the crane is operating but the operator is not actually moving with the crane.

Any Help is appreciated.

Anth

Anthony,

I don’t have a look into your model, but I remember that my colleague Ralf Gruber build a model a long time ago (I have no idea which Flexsim Version it was) where he solved this task. I can’t find the model and I guess this means this is one of the models I did not update over the time.
Anyway, the main idea in the model was to transfer the Operator (transfernode) in the Crane and make it Z location to the ground. Now if the crane moves, the Operator moves and it looks like that the Operator handles the crane (where it is the other way round ).
I hope you get the idea and it is also a solution for you.

Thansk for the help Tom I've got it up and running now and its working really well. However I've got one more problem. The Lift Assist is used by 2 operators for different movements of parts.

The first part of the Task sequence is to move into the crane. What happens now is that the second operator jumps into the crane while the other operator is using it rather than waiting for it to be available.

I seem to come across this type of problem quite regularly. How do you overcome this problem in Flexsim? Is it possible to have a command checking the state of the crane to see if its IDLE? And how do you keep re-checking it to see when it becomes available again?

Anth

To check the state of a crane you could use the command getstatenum().
if getstatenum() == STATE_IDLE

You could use to re-check the OnStateChange functionality which is implemented since v4.5. It is not the triggers in properties, because this is a kind of advance function.
I remember that Phil Bobo built a model to show how to use it, but I can not find it on the community.
But I made myself a model and will put it into the Support Model Section. I asked for this section, that it is easier to find such models, but beside me, nobody seems to use it.

http://www.flexsim.com/community/for...do=file&id=228

@Tom, you are not the only one using it! We are too!

@Anthony: I think that you could also build it into the tasksequence by using the moveobject tasktype and use that to put the right operator in the crane at the right moment.

The OnResourceAvailable trigger fires for task executers when they go idle. You don't need to use the OnStateChange attribute.

Based on your description of the problem, you should probably be using a coordinated task sequence as well so that you can just use its allocation functionality rather than trying to copy that functionality by putting code in lots of places.

@Steven
I got the impression because there are 7 models in the Support Model Section and all 7 are from me. But you are right others also use the User Concept Section.
And I guess you are right, you could solve the task probably with the tasksequence and moveobject tasktype.

@Phil
You are right, I forgot about the OnResourceAvailable. My first thought was the OnStageChange.
And use a coordinated task sequence is also a good direction to go.

Looks like there are some ways to hopefully solve the task …

All

Thanks for all the help, I'll be spending most of the morning working through it.

To answer some comments/questions - I am using a co-ordinated task sequence that makes the operator travel to the crane and then moves the operator into the crane object. This works really well until another object (conveyor) calls its task sequence which does the same thing but with another operator. Even though the crane is busy the second operator can still travel to it and move ito it.

I was thinking last night is there a simple TASK_TYPE I could put at the beginning of the task sequence that would relate to the crane and hence would mean it would be queued until the crane object was available.

Could even a short delay task work?

I will let you know how I get on and perhaps post a demo model once I have completed it.

Anth

If you use a coordinate tasksequence can't you allocate the 2nd operator in the beginning? So then it can't start with another task?

Thanks I'm pleased you said that as I am starting to think there may be a problem with the code thats causing my problem. What I would usually call 'pilot error', if I get some time today I am going to investigate.

Thanks for all of your help.

I'm pleased to say its sorted now.

I had mis-allocated some of the tasks in my Co-ordinated task sequence, instead of allocating them all to the crane once the op was in the crane some of the tasks were allocated to the operator. Once I have changed this it works great. I will do a demo model when I get chance.

Keep up the Forum support it is invaluable!

Anth