DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDUSTRY STANDARD AUTOMATED GUIDED VEHICLE FOR PART COLLECTION AND DELIVERY AT AN ASSEMBLY LINE

For world-class manufacturers, flexible automated materials handling is becoming a necessity. It succeeds in providing manufacturers with a competitive advantage and serves as a market differentiator within a mass customisation production environment. This paper presents the design and development of an Automatic Guided Vehicle for automated part collection and delivery at an assembly line. The developed system is modular and thus supports ease of maintenance and maximum manoeuvrability for automatic loading and unloading of components. Furthermore, seamlessly integrated safety features and fully reprogrammable control and navigation systems ensure that the vehicle can reliably operate in any indoor environment with minimal risk to humans or plant facilities. The authors address actual vehicle design-related issues, including considerations for the chassis and suspension system design, electrical drive system layout, free-range navigation capability, safety, control system and battery management system integration. A structured qualitative approach is presented to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the design and development phases.