AGV School & Information
General AGV Information
Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGV) has been in use since the 1950's. AGVs are driver-less industrial trucks, usually powered by electric motors and batteries. AGVs range in size from carrying small loads of a few kilograms up to loads over 100 tons. The working environment may vary from offices with carpet floor to harbor dockside areas.
Modern AGVs are computer-controlled vehicles with onboard microprocessors. Most AGV-systems also have system management computers, optimizing the AGV utilization, giving transport orders, tracking the material in transfer and directing the AGV traffic.
Automatic load handling is used in many AGV-systems. The AGV can pick up and drop off pallets or transfer loads automatically using fork attachments, conveyors, lift tops etc. depending on the type and size of the load units to handle.
The early AGVs where built as tuggers, towing trailers, or shaped as platform vehicles. The only function was to transport. AGVs today can be equipped with robot arms and grippers and perform robotic handling functions. AGVs are also used as storage machines equipped with forks, handling loads in storage racks up to 10 meters in height or more.
Several methods of guidance and navigation can be implemented. The early AGVs where tracking an inductive guide wire or an optical visible line, painted or made with tape on the floor. The inductive guide wire is still the most used guiding system for AGVs running on concrete floors, also for new installations.
Many companies and people have tried to invent THE replacement for the inductive guide wire. In later years AGV guiding and navigation systems with laser scanners, microwave transponders, inertia gyros, ultrasonic sensors, embedded magnets, camera vision systems etc. have been launched. You name it.
Some of the new types of guiding systems for AGVs are called free-range navigation systems. All guiding systems for AGVs requires however guiding references installed along or around the guide path, nothing is one hundred percent free. Some modern guide wire systems have the guide wires used only as static guidance reference and the AGVs can do many moves off the wire. The question of AGV navigation is always a question of the degree of freedom, and shall be taken in consideration in relation to system price and the costs for changes and maintenance of an AGV-system down the road. The drawback of many free-range navigation systems is that the software gets extensive and may become hard to maintain and change for other people than experts.
Modern AGVs uses commonly radio communications with FM-radio to transmit data to and from the vehicles. The radio communications by itself has created a lot of freedom in modern AGV system design.
Many forklift truck manufacturers and control system developers are trying hard to find good concepts to produce AGVs utilizing manually operated standard forklift trucks and bolt on kits with AGV controls. Most AGVs sold today are however special made machines, special designed for special purposes. AGV building blocks, such as controls, motors, drives etc. are standardized to a high degree which keeps the costs down on a competitive level for special made machines. The problem with automating manual trucks is that the re-engineering and rebuilding gets expensive, and that the operating conditions may be very different which in turn gives different requirements. For example, AGVs may operate at lower running speeds than manually driven trucks, which simplifies the machines with less motor power and smaller batteries.
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