Development of Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV)

Development of Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV)
A. Shahira1
, N. Syafiqah2
, M. Arifpin3
1, 2, 3
Bachelor of Engineering Technology (Honours) in Manufacturing, Faculty of Engineering
Technology, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Malaysia.
Abstract: Automated guided vehicle (AGV) is one
of material handling system that has been used in
industrial applications to move the materials
around a manufacturing facility or warehouse as
it provides more flexibility to the system. The
manual handling needed the worker to push or
pull the trailer that carrying the fragmentary
product. However, pushing and pulling the trolley
with a load manually may cause ergonomics effects
to the workers such as Low-back Disorder (LBD).
Work-related LBD is one of type Work-related
Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) which is
caused by cumulative effects of faulty body
mechanics, poor posture, awkward movement and
improper lifting techniques. The main objectives
of this project are to build an AGV that can
replace the manual handling and able to bring the
fragmentary product to a particular location
based on line pattern recognition systems. In this
project, an AGV model is built that can move
follow the line on the floor with the
microcontroller as it the main brain that controls
all the responses and navigation to the
environment. The guide path is marked with a
black tape that is placed on the floor surface, and
guides path sensor is mounted on the vehicle to
avoid an obstacle. Therefore, an AGV will
continuously alter the speed of the wheels that
continues to move along the obstacle boundary
until it again comes to its predetermined path so
that it will continue on its path automatically. The
project implicates of designing and fabrication of
the hardware and circuitry. AGV is, therefore,
suitable for automating material handling in batch
production and mixed model production.
INTRODUCTION
When automated guided vehicle (AGV) had first
entered the market and industry fifty years ago were called
driverless systems. Going through the years of
development, advances in electronics have led to
improvement in AGV. Nowadays, the technology of AGV
is widely used in industrial environment to perform variety
of task that involves automation [1]
According to Gotting [2], over 20,000 AGVs are used
in industrial applications. In the material handling industry,
safety has been a major consideration from the beginning
and has only become more and more measured as liability
and worker moral are taken into account. Ergonomics have
also rewritten how employees are effected by the work they
do. AGV offer both safety and ergonomics eliminating the
pushing and pulling of heavy carts and when outfitted with
lifting equipment AGV’s assist in alleviating unnecessary
back and leg trauma by eliminating bending and lifting.
These systems integrate automated material handling
systems, robots, numerically controlled machine tools, and
automated inspection stations. Flexible manufacturing
systems (FMS) offer a high capital utilization and reduced
direct labor costs. They also reduce work-in-process
inventories and make it possible to work with shorter lead
times. Because the systems are flexible, they are more
responsive to changes in production requirements. These
systems offer high product quality and increased
productivity. [3]
An AGV consists of one or more computer controlled
wheel based load carriers that run on the plant floor or if
outdoors on a paved area without the need for an onboard
operator or driver. As it names was automated, this vehicle
is programmed to handle an operation on its own. The
argument to employ an AGV system in the warehouse or
manufacturing facility is only becoming more and more
feasible with costs falling and safety on the rise where they
are currently applied. [4]
METHODOLOGY
The methodology based on Development of AGV has
three major step, which is planning, implementing and
analysis. The construction of AGV with obstacle avoidance
sensor to move the product to the next station can be
divided into different phases. Phase 1 is electric circuit
design and development; phase 2 is mechanical design and
hardware assembling, and phase 3 is software development.
In phase 1, the electric circuit design is done. It involved
identifying suitable components that are needed and
designing circuits to interface Arduino Uno
microcontrollers with a component such as IR line sensor,
motor driver, and analog distance sensor.
A. Design Considerations
In design problems many decision variables arise. The
impact of decisions on mutual interactions and performance
might be difficult to predict. It might be hard to decide on
one thing without considering other decision variables. At
least the following tactical and operational issues have to be
addressed in designing an AGV system:

 Vehicle requirements
 Vehicle routing
 Vehicle scheduling
 Flow path layout
 Battery management
 Selection of material
To determine an optimal AGV’s system, that capable of
meeting all the requirements, many factors have to be taken
into account. Several of these factors are:
 Load to be towing, the capacity of the vehicle, the
speed of the vehicle, the layout of the system and
guide path, costs of the system, etc.
B. Working Principle of AGV
To determine the power and torque needed to drive the
AGV, a simple robot model is used to calculate the road
load forces, Frl.
𝐹𝑟𝑙 = 𝑚𝑔[𝑓𝑟 cos(𝛼) + sin(𝛼)] +
1
2
𝜌 𝐿 𝐴 𝑣2
(1)
The road load power, Prl is calculated by multiplying
the road load forces by the velocity as given by:
𝑃𝑟𝑙 = 𝐹𝑟𝑙 𝑣 (2)
In rotational motion, torque is required to produce an
angular acceleration of an object. The amount of torque
needed to produce an angular acceleration depends on the
distribution of the mass of the object
τ = Iα (3)
Driving AGV in a straight line, while using a
differential drive configuration, requires the left and right
front wheel to be rotated at the same angular velocity.
Therefore, it is required accurately to control the rotational
speed of each motor.
C. Components of AGV
i. Frame Design
The mechanical structures of the AGV were fabricated
from Sheet Aluminium Metal. This method is done for ease
of the fabrication, and to reduce the overall weight. It is
designed in Solidworks software. The frame consists of
hollow channel bars made up of Mild Steel with a
dimension of (1 inch x 1 inch). The rectangular sheet is
provided to distribute the weight load of material which is
to be handled by AGV uniformly across the structure. The
frame welded together by metal inert gas welding (MIG).
ii. Towing Mechanism
The non-powered vehicles, or carts, are attached
behind the AGV in a train that is adjustable regarding
length and capacity. The towing mechanism is one of the
main parts of AGV; the towing loads must be placed on and
off carts manually.
iii. Steering System
The steering system configuration that used in this
project is differential drive system as shown in Figure 1.
Two wheels mounted on a single axis are independently
powered and controlled, thus providing both drive and
steering. Additional passive wheels which are usually
casters are provided for support.
Fig 1: Differential drive steering mechanism
iv. Selection of Electric and Electronic Components
a) DC Motor: 450W high-performance DC geared
and brushed motor is suitable for a heavy duty
AGV.
b) Motor Driver: Motor driver with 30A is designed
to drive medium to high power brushed DC motor
with current capacity up to 80A peak and 30A
continuously.
c) Arduino UNO: A microcontroller board based on
the ATmega328 as shown in Figure 2. It has 14
digital input/output pins. It contains everything
needed to support the microcontroller.
Fig 2: Arduino Uno
d) Auto-Calibrating Line Sensor: Come with five
pairs of IR transmitter and receiver, it can cover
line detection of 1cm to 3cm wide, dark color or
bright color line.
e) Ultrasonic Sensor: Uses sonar to determine the
distance to an object. It offers excellent range
accuracy and stable readings. It will require a
digital output and input pin to use it.
D. Fabrication of Hardware and Software
Fabrication of an AGV will undergo through few
processes and the following process are:
i. Metal Cutting and Shearing
A metal cutting tool is a tool which is used to remove
material from a metal work piece through the process of
shear deformation. The cutting process also includes
drilling and grinding.

ii. Metal Joining and Assembly
Welding and Grinding
Materials joining process in which two or more parts
coalesce at their contacting surfaces. AGV body frame is
welded together through Metal Inert Gas (MIG) welding.
Figure 3 shows the welding process took place.
Fig 3: MIG welding and grinding process.
Assembly
Mechanical fastening methods applied in this project
can be divided into two major classes which are temporary
(threaded fasteners) and permanent joint (rivets). Figure 4
shows the assembly process made on AGV’s body frame
and Figure 5 shows the assembly on wires made for an
electronic circuit.
Fig 4: Assemble the wheels on AGV.
Fig 5: Assembly of wires and electronic components on
circuit board.
iii. Programming
Arduino Uno is used in the controller of AGV. It is a
microcontroller board based on the ATmega328. It has 14
digital input/output, six analog inputs, a 16 MHz ceramic
resonator, a USB connection, a power jack and also a reset
button. The microcontroller can be programmed with the
Arduino software as shown in Figure 6.
Fig 6: Arduino Software for AGV
iv. Finishing
Finishing processes may be employed to improve
appearance, adhesion or solderability, corrosion, etc.
Figure 7 shows the appearance after finishing the process,
and Figure 8 shows the electrical components in the AGV
put in a box.
Fig 8: Electrical wires are wrapped, and electronics is
placed in a box.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A. Robot Overview and Analysis
The AGV with obstacle avoidance and line following
is built on a hollow steel body and two wheels at the back
and a metal ball castor at front. It is actuated by two
MY1020Z Dc geared and brushed motor. The frame body
of AGV is analyzed by using a Siemens NX 10.0 to identify
the force and constraints that competent with the design as
shown in Figure 9 and 10.
Figure 9: Expected load that able to put in the AGV up to
50 N which is equal to 500 kg.
Figure 10: Expected load that able to tow by the AGV
without affecting the frame is around 100 N.
Fig 7: Final look after the finishing process.

B. Line Following Testing
The AGV is designed to follow the line pathways by
using the auto calibrate IR line sensor (LSS05). The line
pathways that is designed in this project is in black color.
During the testing for the sensors, this IR line sensor works
well as it follows the line according to the conditions that
have programmed in the microcontroller which is the
Arduino UNO. Each condition will determine the position
of the AGV either it will move to the right or the left. The
conditions of the line sensor results are shown in Table 1.
Figure 11 shows the flow chart of AGV.
Table 1: The conditions of line sensor and results of AGV
movements.
Fig 11: Flow chart of AGV.
C. Obstacle Avoidance Testing
The field for testing obstruction is a straight line. As
the AGV followed the black line, it stopped as soon the
obstacle is detected. The distance between the front end of
ultrasonic sensor and obstacle is recorded. The data is
monitored by using serial monitor and recorded in Table 2.
Table 2: Conditions of obstacle sensor.
D. Risk Analysis of AGV
Table 3 shows the risk analysis of the product in
future implementation:
Table 3: Risk Analysis of AGV
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the main objectives of this project have
been achieved. The AGV developed in this project was
designed lightweight and smaller in size compared to the
existing AGV available in the market. These could be
modified and improved easily to meet the industry
demands as it may help to save up the production floor
layout. From the test runs, it can be recommended that the
usage of ultrasonic sensors should be replaced by proximity
sensors or an infrared sensor as it was found that the
ultrasonic sensor was over-sensitive toward the
environment and it is not applicable to be used in the plant.
Finally, it is worthwhile to mention that the possibility of
AGVs development will help to eliminate the ergonomic
problems and create a safe material handling in future.
REFERENCE
[1] Groover, M. P. (2006). Automation, Production
Systems and Computer - Integrated Manufacturing.
Prentice Hall International, Inc.
[2] Gotting, H. (2000). Automation & Steering of Vehicles
in Ports. Port Technology International, 101-111.
[3] Hamed Fazlollahtabar, M. S.-M. (2015). Autonomous
Guided Vehicle: Methods and Models for Optimal Path
Planning. Springer.
[4] Poeltl, M. (2016, September 22). Handling Specialty.
Retrieved from Handling Specialty:
www.handling.com

Development of Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV)

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