Mobility Internet of Things 2018 by Dagmar Cagáňová & Natália Horňáková

Author:Dagmar Cagáňová & Natália Horňáková
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030309114
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

2.7 Automated Guided Vehicles

Due to the constantly increasing competitive pressure, current trends in logistics are gradually being promoted in most of the industrial enterprises [20]. The use of advanced technology in the field of logistics provides space for improvement of business logistics processes and thus secures competition for the company’s logistics capability [21]. The trend in industrial production worldwide is no warehouse production, i.e., not buying or manufacturing to the warehouse but carry quickly and in the necessary quantities only the components or the goods, for which the sales are already secured. The effort is to shorten the storage time of goods in the warehouse and shorten the time of shipment, loading, and unloading of goods [22]. Based on the mentioned reasons, the warehouse environment is one of the main areas and opportunities for implementing new innovative smart solutions. Among the best automated warehouses of today belong the warehouses of the companies as Amazon.​com, Walmart, Coca Cola, and IKEA which use automated guided vehicles (well known as AGVs), drones, robots, and other smart automated solutions.

In recent years warehouse logistics has been largely devoted to the development of autonomous means of transport capable of transporting goods of various shapes and sizes [23]. One of the smart/intelligent solutions currently used in warehouses are abovementioned AGVs. The main reason of implementation AGV into system is to integrate the material handling flow and increase the material flow rate [24]. AGVs can be used for a specific task, or form part of a completely automated system in a warehouse. AGVs can carry out material handling operations reliably and effectively. AGVs are fully automatic transport systems and electrically powered unmanned vehicles and are equipped with various smart sensors and load protection devices which enable safely transport of all kinds of products without human intervention within production, logistic, warehouse, and distribution environments. AGVs are primarily driven by computers; in some cases AGVs can also be manually controlled [25].

One of the main advantages of the AGV system is its modularity, which constantly develops and transcends its entire structure. Elements of a modular system such as a vehicle and a peripheral and a control system are just basics [21]. Vehicles are driven by electrical energy and most often driven by a magnetic tape located on the floor. Based on RFID tags, the vehicle can determine the route, speed, stop, or communicate with the control system to manage the autonomous system [26]. Other commonly used AGV navigation methods are the technologies as network of magnetic points and gyroscope, camera, and laser guidance technology.

The main advantages and disadvantages of AGVs are summarized in Table 1.Table 1The summary of advantages and disadvantages of AGVs [27, 28]

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