The progression of the industry, alongside the continuous enhancement of operational efficiency and the reduction of production costs, is paving the way for novel solutions in the realm of storage ...and transportation systems. The incorporation of new technologies and solutions, such as mobile robots, has culminated in the establishment of Smart Warehouses. It facilitates the reduction of non-value adding activities for companies. One of the methods of improving the efficiency of such systems is the more effective use of autonomous mobile robots. The article presents an inventive concept of an autonomous mobile robot capable of undertaking transport tasks both on the shop floor and within high-bay warehouses. The new concept of the drive mechanism enables it to navigate on surfaces and move along rail guides. By using an elevator, the robot can be lifted to higher levels within the warehouse. The well-conceived structural solution of the robot allows the elevator's placement anywhere within the warehouse, eliminating the need for constructing a pit. The use of a mobile robot with the proposed structure will enable the execution of transport tasks without necessitating reloading. Such an approach has the potential to increase efficiency and reduce the costs of storage processes.
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•A layout of a transportation system is divided into squares.•Flow-paths are coded and described by a matrix.•A motion of an AGV is considered as a movement from square to square.•A ...new method for AGV collision and deadlock prevention is proposed.•This method is based on chains of elementary reservations.
Automated guided vehicles (AGVs) are now very often used as basic equipment in transportation systems. The efficiency of such systems depends on many factors. One of the crucial issues is collision and deadlock-free operation. In this area, many algorithms have been proposed. Most of them are suitable for systems with a small number of AGVs. Moreover, new areas of implementation of transportation systems with a large number of AGVs have recently appeared. Very often, these transportation systems have a regular structure, e.g. mesh-like. In this paper, a new method for describing such systems with unidirectional, bidirectional or multiple lane flow-paths is proposed. In this method, a layout of a transportation system is divided into squares and described by a matrix. The motion of an AGV is considered as a movement from square to square with a fixed average speed. For this reason, a new method for AGV collision and deadlock prevention is proposed. This method is proposed based on chains of reservations. It is suitable for implementation in transportation systems with a square structure and with a large number of AGVs.
Based on the novel structural online control policy (SOCP) deadlock handling method presented in our previous work, we have shown that for a specific group of use cases it is possible to relax the ...requirements of the method, providing an improvement in its performance. In the present work, a new type of deadlock-free zone was introduced which enabled the method to improve its efficiency for both bidirectional as well as unidirectional and mixed path systems. For bidirectional systems, a beneficial outcome was obtained by approaching the global problem solution using sequentially solved local problems. For unidirectional and mixed systems, on the other hand, this paper introduces a condition that allows verification of the feasibility of performing process reservations in a staged manner. The fulfillment of this condition means that there is a possibility of obtaining higher efficiency of the transportation system. The effectiveness of the proposed approaches has been verified by simulations. Their results were compared with the results of the original method resulting in a significant improvement.
•A simple easily adaptable method for collision and deadlock resolution in industrial AGV systems.•The method introduces the possibility of dividing the route build of zones into alternate ...segments.•It allows the global problem to be considered by means of sequentially solved local problems.•The method is flexible in the sense that it allows adaptability to the structure of the route.•The method is suitable both for a central and distributed control system architecture.
In this paper, we present a simple, easily adaptable method for collision and deadlock resolution in transport systems. This method is based on the dividing the transport road network into non-overlapping zones, which enables it to be analyzed as a system of discrete events. The method distinguishes unidirectional zones, which have the feature that the passage between these zones cannot lead to a deadlock. This makes it possible to divide the transport network into segments composed of unidirectional zones and segments composed of other zones. The method introduces a structural on-line control policy (SOCP) which guarantees that the execution of an elementary transport operation does not lead to deadlock. This allows, in general, a global problem to be considered by means of sequentially solved local problems, thus reducing the restrictive constraints resulting from the need to avoid deadlocks. The method is suitable both for central and distributed control system architecture. The efficiency of the proposed method was verified using simulation. Its results were compared with the results of other methods. The comparison was made using examples of three systems differing in their types of roads. The presented results of the simulation studies show a higher efficiency of the SOCP method.
Cost Optimization in Manufacturing System with Unidirectional AGVs Malopolski, Waldemar
Applied Mechanics and Materials,
06/2014, Letnik:
555, Številka:
Modeling and Optimization of the Aerospace, Robotics, Mechatronics, Machines-Tools, Mechanical Engineering and Human Motricity Fields
Journal Article
Recenzirano
This paper presents an example of optimization of an automated manufacturing system comprising a transport subsystem based on the automated guided vehicles (AGV). Number of resources in the ...manufacturing system and the number and location of the AGVs were subject of optimization. Profit maximization was assumed as an objective function. Arena and OptQuest software were used to build the simulation model and perform the optimization. The article describes an original solution for optimizing the number and cost of AGVs.
The paper presents mechanical, safety and positioning aspects of design of a three-wheel, battery powered, automated guided vehicle. AGV is driven by a DC motor integrated with the wheel. The chosen ...kinematic structure is compact and assures a high degree of maneuverability. Principles of operation and general capabilities of safety laser scanner SICK S300 were discussed. AGV is equipped with laser localization system SICK NAV300. The paper presents some issues concerning implementation of this equipment in the AGV built at the Production Engineering Institute of Cracow University of Technology.
Provider: - Institution: - Data provided by Europeana Collections- s. 25-33- Z. 119 = Nr 1339- X Krajowa Konferencja Automatyzacji Dyskretnych Procesów Przemysłowych : Zakopane, 18-21.09 1996. Sekcja ...3, Komputerowo zintegrowana produkcja. Sekcja 4, Sztuczna inteligencja i robotyka- All metadata published by Europeana are available free of restriction under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. However, Europeana requests that you actively acknowledge and give attribution to all metadata sources including Europeana
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