“PERHAPS WE WILL
SEE A COMBINATION OF
LASER AND NATURAL
NAVIGATION BEING USED
Roland Anderson, president, Amerden AGVs
AGVs
54 Advanced Lift-truck Technology International 2019
IN THE FUTURE”
development cycle. “Toyota has
developed an intelligent integrated
intralogistics platform, T-ONE, to
manage automated operations,” he
says. “T-ONE utilizes real-time
automated routing and control
methods continuously scanning the
system and adapting to changes or
blockings of the planned travel path,
optimizing order processing time and
overall vehicle efficiency.”
Beveridge adds that the system is
installed as an integrated layer of
communication with the Toyota
Autopilot AGVs and the customer’s
existing systems.
Looking forward
Collaboration seems to be the
catchword for the future of AGVs.
Some believe the industry needs a
dual-vehicle system where both
operate in harmony, like collaborative
robots, but collaborating with other
equipment. Already there are dualpurpose
forklifts that can be manual
or automatic. Stephan believes to
increase productivity, communication
between machines, mobile robots
and humans is essential, particularly
in intralogistics.
Hybrid AGV guiding
systems are already being
used in certain
circumstances.
“Collaborative
equipment onboard
AGVs already exists,”
says Anderson.
“Side-shifting forks,
top clamps and clamps
to up-end or down-end
rolls, for example. Perhaps
we will see a combination of
laser navigation and natural
navigation being used in the future,”
“Increased horizontal integration
is certainly important in the future,”
adds Johansson. “It gives customers
better tools. Collaboration will not
only be between automated systems
but also between automated and
manual forklifts.”
Wang says the future of AGVs will
be highly information-based,
automated, intelligent and highly
adaptive. “From the perspective of
resources, the integration of technology
and capital and the complementarity
of resources and markets will
definitely generate development of the
AGV market,” he says.
“Hybrid equipment is currently
extremely attractive to the industry
due to its ability to be used manually,”
says Beveridge. “This helps in
transition between manual and
autonomous processes. End-users are
far less threatened by the introduction
of hybrid vehicles as there is always a
manual roll-back option.”
Beveridge adds that lean logistics
and a continuous flow is challenging
at present, but believes he has the
solution – teamwork between vehicles
thanks to artificial intelligence,
sending the right vehicle to the right
place at the right time, for a
maximum value-added operation
with extreme optimization, and zero
waste in energy, time and space.
These are lofty aspirations for any
equipment supplier, but one that the
current and future series of
automated guided vehicles might
well be able to rise to. ALT
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ABOVE: AGVs can repeatedly
and reliably perform
handling tasks that
are tiring for humans
to carry out
AGV system with many intersections,
which in the recent past would have
taken months to be completely
debugged, now takes only weeks.”
A great step forward, according to
Linde’s Stephan, is the fast and easy
installation process of AGV systems.
Linde’s process involves analyzing the
material flows on site, in consultation
with the customer. Once the planning
phase is complete, the equipment can
be installed within just a few days.
“On the horizontal level, the
contour-based geo-navigation system
guides the AGVs safely and efficiently
through the warehouse without
adding additional infrastructure for
orientation. A navigation laser
permanently scans the surroundings
within a 360 degree radius to orientate
itself in space. Sensors attached to the
truck and fork carriage ensure that
pallets are placed or picked up safely
and in the right place. In addition,
three-dimensional cameras are used
to detect the storage location on the
shelf and adjust the position of the
forks using the side shift. Integrating
the vehicle into the operational flow
data is achieved by means of Linde’s
Robot Manager,” explains Stephan.
One of the persistent complaints
regarding AGVs was their lengthy
development cycles. Beveridge
believes routing and traffic control
were the main factors behind this
and that being able to reduce the
reliance on custom traffic algorithms
is the key to minimizing the system
US$7.3bn
The predicted value of
the global AGV market
by 2025 (up from
$2.5bn in 2018)
(Grand View research)
Amerden Kollmorgen
Natural Navigation enables
AGVs to navigate efficiently
in warehouse environments
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