The Basics of Automatic Guided Vehicle Systems

Basic Functions

Navigation & Guidance allows the vehicle to follow a predetermined route which is optimized for the material flow pattern of a given application

Routing is the vehicle's ability to make decisions along the guidance path in order to select optimum routes to specific destinations

Traffic Management is a system or vehicle ability to avoid collisions with other vehicles while at the same time maximizing vehicle flow and therefore load movement throughout the system.

Load Transfer is the pickup and delivery method for an AGVS system, which may be simple or integrated with other subsystems.

System Management is the method of system control used to dictate system operation.

The proper method selection for each function and its ability to work with the other functions determines in great measure the degree of success of a given system.