在製造業或是電子業中利用自動化表面處理部分相當廣泛，如在印刷電路板製程當中表面粗化處理、鑽孔後除膠渣、電路電鍍、表面抗氧化鍍金等；而在半導體製程中包括化學溼式清洗，更佔全製程之三分之一以上；積體電路的製程中，無論前段製程的擴散、磊晶氧化、複晶蝕刻或後段製程中介電層及金屬層蝕刻光阻脫除等，均需要反覆清洗以滿足各製程對表面的需求，而反覆的清洗步驟約佔全部製程步驟的30%；所以本論文是以印刷電路板(Printed Circuit Board)的電鍍線(Electroplating Line)製程為例，研究天車排程問題(Hoist Scheduling Problem，HSP)的改善方法。
目前多數對於自動化表面處理線『天車排程問題』的研究均集中於在單一天車、單一產品的環境下，以事前規劃的方式，求得產能最佳化的天車行程。但實際系統通常運用多部天車同時運作，而且這種針對單一產品所規劃的行程會遭遇到以下主要的問題：(1)生產線只能生產單一規格的產品 (2)在某些無法完全避免的機械故障的情況下〈如某一天車或某處理槽故障〉，形成原規劃天車行程無法應變，而造成大量產品報廢的情形。〈洪瑞炫 2002〉 (3) 先前的研究(Mak, et al. 2002)指出多部天車間部份搬運區的重疊〈overlapping〉可能可以提昇天車的搬運效率，但未有進一步的結論。故此研究的目的在發展一個天車即時(real-time)控制法則，有別於以往靜態天車行程規劃，能彈性反應系統動態；文中參考〈Mak, et al. 2002〉合作區域的作法，並根據以往無人搬運車(AGV)文獻中大都以單載量無人搬運車為研究基礎，發展出不同派車法則、車輛數評估、路徑規劃、防撞問題等，相當類於天車排程中的工件載送問題，故在本研究中發展出不同的工件選擇法則與目的槽選擇法則；針對六種工件選擇法則與兩種目的槽選擇法則互相搭配，引入本研究發展的天車即時控制法則，利用模擬軟體(ARENA 7.0)進行系統模擬，進而驗證出那些法則在本研究的環境參數假設下有較好的績效與結論。

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