Title: Coordination of industrial AGVs

Authors: Roberto Olmi, Cristian Secchi, Cesare Fantuzzi

Addresses: Engineering Department in Ferrara, University of Ferrara, via Saragat, 1 – 44122 Ferrara, Italy. ' Department of Sciences and Methods of Engineering, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, via Amendola, 2 – pad. Morselli – 42122 Reggio Emilia, Italy. ' Department of Sciences and Methods of Engineering, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, via Amendola, 2 – pad. Morselli – 42122 Reggio Emilia, Italy

Abstract: In this paper, we propose an algorithm for coordinating a group of mobile robots that go through predefined paths in a dynamic industrial environment. Coordination diagrams are used for representing the possible collisions among the vehicles. We exploit this information for developing a centralised and incremental planning algorithm that allows to coordinate the vehicles and to take into account unexpected events that can occur in an industrial environment. Simulation tests have been executed in order to compare the performance of our algorithm with the one currently implemented by the company.

Keywords: motion coordination; robot coordination; AGV coordination; coordination diagram; autonomous vehicles; multi-robot systems; multiple robots; AGVs; automated guided vehicles; industrial vehicles; scheduling; mobile robots; robot motion; collision avoidance; robot navigation; simulation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVAS.2011.038177

International Journal of Vehicle Autonomous Systems, 2011 Vol.9 No.1/2, pp.5 - 25

Received: 01 Oct 2009
Accepted: 25 May 2010
Published online: 10 Apr 2015 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article