Avoiding collisions with other objects while moving an Agent to a specific destination

Question

I have in my model some free-moving agents, which travel to specific nodes. I use the function...

moveTo(node)

...to specify the node an agent should visit. Using this function, the agent travels the shortest path to the node. However, the model layout contains areas (i.e. image files), which the agent should not pass. Right now, the agents may travel through these areas to reach their destination. Now I'm wondering, whether there is an easy way to permit an agent to enter specific areas in the model, when traveling to a node.

I already took a look at the example model "Wandering Elephants" where the elephants are permitted to walk through areas with water. The solution there is, that if an elephant meets water in the direction it's currently heading, it randomly searches for another direction, until it finds one without water. However, this approach doesn't really fit to my problem, as the elephants in the model wander around without any specific destination. I'm searching for a method, which works for an agent that travels to a specific point. In the best case, the agent would search the shortest path around the obstacle to reach its destination.

Edit 1: The following figure shows my problem in a nutshell. On the left side is my model structure, while on the right side the state chart of my custom agent. What is happening in the model: The 3 sources are producing agents, which will be delayed for an uncertain time (delay stops with stopDelay()). Everytime an agent enters a delay, the delay is added to the collection request. My customagent check requests in a loop until the collection contains at least one request. Then, the customagent randomly selects a request (i.e. delay object) to serve. Each delay is associated with a node (the collection processNodes maps delays to nodes). Now, I want to cast my customagent to a Transporter and move it to the corresponding node. The agent should avoid collisions with the stripped walls in the model. I want to avoid any seizing and releasing of resources. I just want to adapt the behaviour of the Transport agent from the material handling library to my agent.

Edit 2: In my current testbed, my custom agent does not consider node 1 or node 2. For testing, the agent should only try to reach node without any collisions.

Answer 1

I found a sufficient work-around. Not exactly what I wanted, but it works. Against my initial intention, I use now seize and release for transports. However, I added a hold-block in front of each seized-block and only a resource, which decides to serve the process, is able to unblock the corresponding hold. The on-enter control of the unblocked hold ensures that the hold is directly blocked again as soon as a single agent flows through. For the case that other users are also interested in the solution, I attached the flow-chart of the process and the state-chart of the Transporter-Agent. The system structure is quite the same as in my initial question.

Answer 2

There is no build-in way unless you use transporters from the Material handling library (or pedestrians). These can do what you need.

So easiest might be to convert you agents to transporters temporarily.

Otherwise, you will have to code something yourself...