What are AGVs and what are they used for?
Autonomous guided vehicles, also known as AGVs, are autonomously moving vehicles that transport whatever you put on them without the need for an operator to drive them. They can be more or less intelligent depending on the type and the technology they incorporate.
There are different types of AGVs that incorporate different navigation technologies. Depending on the technology on which they are based, we can find these types:
Philoguided
The AGV moves guided by a conductive wire installed under the ground, which is accessed through small slots where a rod connected to the vehicle is inserted.
Optoguided
The AGV travels guided by a strip of mirror that extends along the paths of the AGV, placed continuously on the sides of the roads (or on the ground) or in the corners where the AGV has to make a decision.
AGV through Computer Vision
The AGV recognizes a strip of mirror by means of artificial vision, calculating and correcting at every moment the deviation between the AGV and the route.
Laser Guidance
The AGV is equipped with a rotating laser unit that scans to identify as many reflectors as possible in its surroundings to determine their position on the map of the facility it has in memory.
AGV 2D-3D Mapping
This technology makes it unnecessary to install any external element to the AGV, since it uses cameras, LIDAR and ultrasound, among others, which are capable of creating a virtual map of the environment in which they are working. It is the most flexible and adaptive system.In addition to the most common applications focused on logistics and transport of materials, there are other problems that can be solved through the use of AGVs. On the other hand, in addition to existing commercial teams for this purpose, you can make your own developments for each application that respond to all needs.
Use cases
Next, we tell you three practical cases in which AGVs are used for different functions and applications. In two of them, the design of the equipment has been made ad-hoc for these applications, however, the third is a modification of a commercial equipment. Both options are very interesting and allow you to adapt to the problem to be solved in each case.
Cleaning AGV
Cleaning tasks in different environments are tedious, not very ergonomic and harmful to health. In this case, it is an autonomous cleaning system focused on cleaning pig farms. The system navigates autonomously through the corridors of the same performing functions of vacuuming excrement.
This system has been designed for this purpose and has different elements. First, the system has a navigation system developed ad hoc to locate and map the work area. The equipment moves thanks to the motors and reducers placed on both wheels. The cleaning system has a pump that sucks the dirt into a tank and then expels it. All these elements are powered by lithium batteries placed inside the equipment and sized to cover the needs of all the elements mentioned above.
In this case, the consumption of all the elements has been taken into account, keeping a commitment to the daily consumption generated by the tasks marked, the duration of the batteries and their weight. Their charger is at a fixed point and the equipment detects when its battery level is low, moves to that point and charges automatically.
Autonomous robot for agricultural activities
The agricultural world is in full technological development and digitization is increasingly present. This sector offers many possibilities for automation and improvement of tasks.
At ATRIA we have developed a system for the automatic pruning of the vine. The team navigates autonomously and identifies the cutting points to carry out the pruning of the vine.
To carry out this task, the team relies on the union of different technologies. On the one hand, the vision system identifies the 3D coordinates of the cut-off point in each iteration.
This system communicates with the robotic arm that performs the cut at the indicated point. The navigation system, in this case, is based on GPS location technology and has two motors that drive the movement.
All elements are powered by a battery system. As in the case of the cleaning AGV, a compromise has been sought between the weight and the consumption of all the elements mentioned above and that make up the equipment.
AGV as the basis for a robotic arm
Many times, automating multiple workstations using robotics may not be economically feasible. One solution is to incorporate a robotic arm to an AGV that moves between the different positions, performing tasks sequentially. If the tasks do not require the continuous intervention of the robotic arm, but are periodic and spaced in time, this is the best solution.
For example, at ATRIA we have developed a system to carry out periodic testing of gas hobs in life tests. In this link you can find more information about this project.
In this case, a commercial AGV equipment has been adapted by adding a robotic arm and the rest of the sensors necessary to carry out the assigned tasks: computer vision cameras, force and sound sensors, temperature sensors, among others.
All the elements are connected to the batteries of the commercial AGV, but, in this case, it is necessary to expand their capacity since the consumption is much higher. For this, a battery with the same characteristics as the one used in the commercial system is added in series. These teams are prepared to carry out this type of expansion so it is a simple and easy task to implement.As you have seen, AGVs have many possibilities for modification and batteries are not a problem.
Do you want to apply AGVs in any of your Projects? Contact us!