Equipment Manufacturing Sector

Purpose: The EquipmentManSector acts as the central logistics hub for heavy equipment on the Moon. Despite its name, its primary role in the current implementation is not manufacturing, but rather managing the inventory of critical assets like rovers and robots. It ensures that other sectors have the equipment they need to operate and expand by managing stock levels and orchestrating resupply missions from Earth.

Core Components & Data Structures:

• EquipmentInventory: The heart of the sector, this class tracks the lifecycle of all equipment.

  • physical_stock: The quantity of equipment physically present and available for allocation on the Moon.

  • pending_orders: The quantity of equipment that has been requested from Earth but has not yet arrived.

• _equipment_backlog: A queue (deque) that holds unfulfilled equipment requests from other sectors. If a request cannot be met due to insufficient stock, it remains in the backlog to be re-evaluated in the next step.

• _event_buffer: A temporary list that collects all incoming events during a simulation step, ensuring they are processed in a controlled manner at the start of the next step.

High-Level Flow

        flowchart TD
    A[Simulation step begins] --> B[Process buffered events]

    B --> C{Event type}
    C -->|payload_delivered| D[Add delivered equipment to physical stock]
    D --> E[Reduce matching pending orders]
    C -->|equipment_request| F[Add request to equipment backlog]
    C -->|No buffered events| G[Process equipment backlog]
    E --> G
    F --> G

    G --> H{Physical stock available?}
    H -->|Enough stock| I[Publish equipment_allocated event]
    I --> J[Remove allocated equipment from physical stock]
    H -->|Partial stock| K[Publish partial equipment_allocated event]
    K --> L[Keep outstanding quantity in backlog]
    H -->|No stock| L
    J --> M[Check resupply needs]
    L --> M

    M --> N[Calculate backlog demand per equipment type]
    N --> O[Calculate effective stock: physical + pending]
    O --> P[Target level: configured minimum + backlog demand]
    P --> Q{Effective stock below target?}
    Q -->|Yes| R[Add deficit to transport request payload]
    R --> S[Increase pending orders immediately]
    Q -->|No| T[No resupply needed]
    S --> U{Any payload requested?}
    T --> U
    U -->|Yes| V[Publish transport_request event]
    U -->|No| W[Step ends]
    V --> W
    

Operational Cycle & Key Algorithms

The sector’s logic is event-driven and revolves around maintaining minimum stock levels.

1. Event Processing (_process_buffered_events) At the start of each step, the sector processes all events that have arrived since the last step.

• payload_delivered: When a resupply mission from Earth arrives, the sector updates its inventory:

  • Increases physical_stock with the delivered items.

  • Decreases pending_orders by the same amount, as the order is now fulfilled.

• equipment_request: When another sector requests equipment, the request is added to the _equipment_backlog to be processed.

2. Fulfilling Requests (_process_equipment_backlog) The sector attempts to fulfill pending requests from its physical_stock.

• If stock is sufficient, it publishes an equipment_allocated event (notifying the requesting sector) and deducts the items from its inventory.

• If stock is insufficient, the request remains in the backlog, and the sector will try to fulfill it again in a future step once new stock arrives.

3. Proactive Resupply Logic (_check_and_request_resupply) This is the core algorithm that prevents equipment shortages.

• Calculate Effective Stock: For each equipment type, it calculates the effective_stock. This is the crucial insight of the sector’s logic.

  \[\text{Stock}_{\text{effective}} = \text{Stock}_{\text{physical}} + \text{Orders}_{\text{pending}}\]

• Check Against Minimums: It compares this effective_stock against a pre-configured minimum_level.

• Request Resupply: If the effective stock is below the minimum, it calculates the deficit and immediately takes two actions:

  1. It publishes a transport_request event, asking the TransportationSector to launch a resupply mission from Earth with the required equipment.

  2. It immediately increases its own pending_orders for the requested amount. This is critical as it prevents the sector from sending duplicate resupply requests in subsequent steps for items that are already in transit.

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Configuration Options

The sector is configured in the world_system JSON file. You can set initial inventory levels and define the minimum stock thresholds that trigger the resupply logic. Equipment names are centralized in world_system_defs.py as EquipmentType; minimum levels are loaded from MongoDB configuration.

"equipment_manufacturing": {
  "sector_name": "equipment_manufacturing",
  "initial_stocks": {
    "Science_Rover_EQ": 2,
    "Assembly_Robot_EQ": 1
  },
  "minimum_levels": {
    "Science_Rover_EQ": 3,
    "Assembly_Robot_EQ": 2,
    "ISRU_Robot_EQ": 2
  }
}