Automated Guided Vehicles(AGV)

What is AGV?
• Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) are driverless industrial trucks,
usually powered by electric motors and batteries.

The Automatic Guided Vehicle (AGV) is a safe, reliable, and

efficient material transport system that can be used instead of
forklifts to move loads of all sizes.

AGVs are available in tape, wire, and laser guidance configurations

for maximum layout flexibility, and their crabbing capability saves
floor space.

AGV models are available to transport weights from 220 to 550 lbs.,
as well as pallets up to 6,600 lbs.
 Automated Guided Vehicles (or Automatic Guided Vehicles) have
been moving materials and products over 50 years.

 The first AGV system, a modified towing tractor with trailer

following an overhead wire, was built and introduced in 1953 in a
grocery warehouse.

• By the late 50's and early 60's towing AGVs were in operation in
many types of factories and warehouses. This type of AGV, a tugger,
is still applied today.
Components of AGV

• Vehicle.

• Guidance system.

• Input/output/transfer mechanism.
Classification criteria of AGVs
Tote/box or pallet handling.
Guidance system
Tape.
Wire.
Laser.
Input/output/transfer mechanism
Roller conveyor.
Chain conveyor.
Fork top.
Rear fork.
Battery charge/recharge option.
Number of vehicles.
Technological features of AGV
▫ Permanent 10-year battery eliminates need for battery changing.

▫ Opportunity charging allows automatic battery charging without

removing vehicle from service.

▫ Quiet operation (<65 db).

▫ Multi-directional wheels allow travel forward, backward and

sideways, with 90º crabbing, minimizing space requirements.

▫ Microprocessor control with Radio Frequency (RF)

communications.

▫ Laser guidance option allows maximum layout flexibility.

History Of AGV:-
• First AGV developed in 1954 by A.M.Barrett,Jr.
• Using a overhead wire to guide a modified towing
truck pulling a trailer in a grocery warehouse.
• Subsequently, commercial AGV were introduced by
Barrett.
• 1973, Volvo developed automated guided vehicles
to serve assembly platforms for moving car bodies
through its final assembly plants.
• Later, Volvo marketed their unit load AGVs to other
car companies.
Navigation system of AGVs
• The first generation navigation schemes were expensive to install.
The exact path of the AGV needed to be 'cut' in the floor to bury the
wire in. The cut for a turn had to follow the radius curve that the
vehicle would make when turning. Many systems had to embed four
wires - three for guidance and one for communications. Often,
rebar or electronic signals would interfere with the guidance signals
imposed on the wires.

• Today the wire-guided technology is outdated. New AGV guidance

systems, such as the FROG-technology, offer many advantages
(installation costs, flexibility, maintainability) over the wire-guided
AGV technology.
 As electronics and microprocessors advanced, so did AGV
applications. More intelligent Automatic Guided Vehicles were
created and the need for a sophisticated path was reduced.

 The first major development was 'dead reckoning'. Dead reckoning is

the ability to traverse space without having to rely on the physical
presence of a guidance wire. The biggest advantage was that dead
reckoning eliminated the need to make the cut radius turns at
intersections. The AGVs could leave the wire, turn at a programmed
radius, and then pick-up the wire to continue its course of travel. The
path still required multiple wires in the floor, but the installation was
greatly simplified.

• During the 1980s, non-wire guided AGV systems were introduced.

Laser and inertia guidance are two AGV guidance technologies
allowing for increased system flexibility and accuracy. Changes to the
path can be made without costly, time-consuming floor alterations or
production interruptions.
• Modern AGVs are computer-controlled vehicles with onboard
microprocessors (such as the FrogBox and FrogBox Light). Most AGV-
systems also have a supervisory control system (e.g. SuperFROG) to
optimise the AGV utilization, generate and/or distribute transport
orders, tracking and tracing modules and acting as 'traffic cop' based
on priorities.
IM70
An inductive modem for wireless guidance of AGV
 It is a wireless communication device used for
the intercommunication between a driverless
carrier (AWG) and the central control system.

 When the AWG gets an order to pick up an

article from the store.

 It needs to navigate its way along a wire sling

which is buried in the concrete floor.

 IM70 is a little box under the vehicle capable

of using this wire sling as a bi-directional data
link. All digital electronics was built around a
Xilinx. FPGA.
 Software related to AGVs
• AGV Manager is the name of a software which is basically dealing with
the flow management.

• This is based on a modular core which allows it not only to manage AGVs

fleet but also operators, palletisation cells,  stretch-wrapping or pallet
covering machines, automatic or manual warehousing, dispatching.

 Its flexibility allows it to easily integrate with any industrial process —

production and logistics — and to communicate with all management
systems (ERP, WMS, GPAO, etc). 

With its Focus functionalities, it can manage a simple automatic point-

to-point transfer,  ends of lines, storing missions, or a whole warehouse. 
Traceability and Adaptation by
AGV
• AGV Manager also integrates the identification and traceability of
all loads transported. 

• It provides a complete tracking of the products, from production to

dispatching and warehousing.

• Whether installations are existing or not, manual or

automatic, computerized or not, AGV Manager adapts to all your
constraints in order to manage your production logistics and meet
all your needs.
Benefits of AGV
▫ Eliminates forklift traffic.

▫ Individual load tracking from pickup to delivery for

precise inventory control.

▫ Safe, reliable operation using ultrasonic sensors,

acoustical and visual operating indicators, emergency
stop button, and full-perimeter contact bumper.
Applications
• Within industrial environments, the use of AGVs has evolved
drastically: from traditional distribution-oriented applications at one
end of the spectrum to complex computer-controlled automobile
assembly systems with robotic interfaces at the other end.

• They can be stand-alone systems, an integral part of another system,

or aid in pulling together islands of automation.

• AGV originally designed for horizontal transportation of palletized

material, the design and application of AGVs and controls are now as
varied as those of industrial robots.

• Outside industrial environments, Automated Guided Vehicles are

now also being applied for transhipment at ports, as people movers
and in the entertainment industry.
Replacement Applications of AGV

▫ Conveyors

▫ Forklift trucks.

▫ Hand carts.
Applications of AGV in Automobile Industry
• Typical AGV applications in the automotive industry include
automated raw material delivery, automated work in process
movements between manufacturing cells, and finished goods
transport.

•  AGVs link shipping/receiving, warehousing, and production with

just-in-time part deliveries that minimize line side storage
requirements. 

• AGV systems help to create the fork-free manufacturing

environment which many plants in the automotive industry are
seeking.
•
Advances of AGVS over previous
technology

▫ Reduced load damage.

▫ Less facility wear and tear.
▫ Requires less operating space.
▫ System capacity increased by adding vehicles.
▫ Elimination of single-point failure; system can
continue operating if a vehicle fails.
Problems addressed by AGV

Floor space
▫ Provides more space for production.
• Productivity
▫ Supplements limited capacity in storage and
production areas.
• Inventory
▫ Solves the problem of poor product
accessibility
Problems addressed by AGV

Ergonomics
▫ Workers in hostile environments.
▫ Workers walking long distances
▫ Excessive noise levels from material handling
equipment
▫ Safety hazards
▫ Labor-intensive processes
Problems addressed by AGV
Disjointed Operations (Lack of
Integration)
▫ Multiple staging areas
▫ Product is often moved from one staging area to
another
• Labor
▫ High employee turnover
▫ High labor costs
▫ Small labor pool
▫ Low job satisfaction
Exemplary specifications of AGV
 Transfer height: 16-21 in.
• Maximum load weight: 220-
(.41-.53 m).
6,600 lbs. (100-3000 kg).
 Traveling direction: multi-
directional.
• Maximum load size:  Battery voltage: 48 V.
Length: 30-51 in. (0.76-1.30 m).
 Battery capacity: 40-80 Amp.
Width: 20-47 in. (0.50-1.19 m).
hrs.
 Battery charging/discharging
• Maximum speed: 164-196
ratio: 1:10.
ft./min. (50-60 m/min.).
 Communication: spread
• Crabbing speed: 49 ft./min. (15
spectrum radio frequency.
m/min.).
 Steering system: direct drive
• Turning radius: 24-56 in. (.60-
power wheel steering.
1.42 m).
Photographic view of a forklift type
AGV with wireless guiding system
AGV accessing materials from different
racks