Human-Centred Collaborative AGVs Fleet Control for Low Carbon Manufacturing

Background and Motivation

Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) are mobile robots that navigate around the factory by following a predefined path (identified by a pre-installed magnetic/visual strips or indoor localisation systems) and preform the material transportation task in a manufacturing or warehouse facility. In approaching to the era of Industry 4.0, smarter AGVs are highly demanded for enabling more agile manufacturing, where AGVs collaborate with each other as a fleet of autonomous robots to carry out complicated tasks in a complex and rapid-changing environment. In particular, in the pandemic, AGVs help industries mitigate the shortfalls in labours and productivities due to the restrictions in personal mobility to control the epidemic’s spread. The AGV market size was $1.83b in 2020 and is expected to grow from $2.00b in 2021 to $3.72b in 2028, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.3% in the 2021-2028 period.

Project Overview

This group project is based on the collaboration with our industrial partner ADM Automation. ADM develop and manufacture the iCart automated guided vehicle. As part of their research and development activities they need to explore potential technologies that can improve the performance of the iCart, reduce costs and expand the operator interface capabilities. The five projects identified below would assist ADM in achieving their objectives.

1. Charging Management for AGV fleets
2. LiDAR-aided Precise Localisation of AGVs for Open Path following in Complex Industry Environment
3. Vision Encoder for AGVs
4. Advanced Navigation Control for High-speed AGVs
5. Operator-friendly Communication and Command AGV System via WiFi
6. Object detection via LiDAR for Load and Workstation Monitoring

More details about the AGV-related projects, can be found here