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New AGV Capabilities are Safety Driven

Published

Author(s)

Roger V. Bostelman, William P. Shackleford

Abstract

Current automated guided vehicle (AGV) technology typically provides material handling flow along single or dual opposing-flow lanes in manufacturing and distribution facilities. An AGV stops for most any obstacle that may be in its path which then stops other AGVs behind it until the obstacle is removed. An alternative to serial AGV flow is to provide parallel flow in particular areas, such as buffer zones and appropriate lanes where a stopped AGV can be passed by other AGVs. This paper describes two obstacle detection and avoidance (ODA) methods developed, demonstrated, and the performance of an industrial AGV with its stock controller and an added high-level planning algorithm was measured by a laser tracker. These methods will allow current, off-the-shelf AGVs to advance towards unstructured environment navigation.
Citation
Material Handling & Logistics Magazine

Keywords

automated guided vehicle (AGV), obstacle detection and avoidance, ANSI/ITSDF B56.5, traffic flow, algorithm, material handling

Citation

Bostelman, R. and Shackleford, W. (2014), New AGV Capabilities are Safety Driven, Material Handling & Logistics Magazine, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=917359 (Accessed March 28, 2024)
Created September 3, 2014, Updated February 19, 2017