Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) is commonly used in manufacturing plant, warehouse, distribution center, and terminal. AGV is self-driven vehicle used to transport material between workstations in the shop floor without the help of an operator, and AGV includes a material transfer system located on the top and driving system at the bottom to move the vehicle as desired. For navigation, AGV mostly uses lane paths, signal paths or signal beacons. Various predominant sensors are also used in the AGV. However, in the conventional AGV, there is a problem of not turning or damaging nearby objects or AGV in a narrow space. In this paper, a new driving system is proposed to move the vehicle in a narrow space. In the proposed driving system, two sets of the combined steering-drive unit are adopted to solve the above problem. A prototype of AGV with the new driving system is developed for the comparative analysis with the conventional AGV. In addition, the experimental result shows the improved performance of the new driving system in the maximum speed, braking distance and positioning precision tests.

This paper is to analyze the travel distance and the transport size of the vehicle when the AGV carries multiple-load in the tandem automated guided vehicle systems. The size of multiple-load represents the number of load that the AGV can carry simultaneo

Modem automated manufacturing processes employ automated guided vehicles(AGVs) for material handing, which serve several machining centers(MCs) in a factory. Optimal scheduling of AGVs can significantly help to increase the efficiency of the manufacturing

Modern automated manufacturing processes employ automated guided vehicles(AGVs) for material handling, which serve several machining centers(MCs) in a factory. Optimal scheduling of AGVs can significantly help to increase the efficiency of the manufacturing process by minimizing the idle time of MCs waiting for the raw materials. In this paper, we will analyse the requirements for an optimal schedule and then provide a mathematical framework for an efficient schedule of material delivery by an AGV. With this model, the optimal number of MCs to be utilized will also be determined. Finally, the material delivery schedule employing multiple journeys to the MCs by the AGV will be carried out. Through rigorous analysis and simulation experiments, we shall show that such a delivery strategy will optimize the overall performance.