Laser navigation – this is how the automated guided vehicle drives precisely and safely!
Precise navigation in space
We place the same high demands on navigation as we do on our vehicles – „make it simple“!
The AGV is controlled by free laser navigation; additional reflectors are only fitted at concise points to increase the precision. To ensure that the driverless system is easy and flexible to use, the applied software offers a playfully simple practical approach: By means of a comfortable software - which impresses with a clear, graphical user interface - the user can plan and implement the routes independently. New mapping rarely needs to be done because laser navigation is robust and insensitive to environmental changes. The navigation algorithm filters out the natural contours of the surroundings from the measured values of the laser scanners and creates an internal map from this (Mapping). The advanced algorithm captures geometric contours instead of point clouds. The map thus remains usable for a long time; despite regular changes in the natural environment of the automated guided vehicle.
A new coffee machine or a new machine in the vicinity of your automated guided vehicle? No problem, our laser navigation can still find its way around!
The quick and economical installation and modification of the navigation system enables a profitable use of the CALL THE DONKEY system right from the start. Furthermore, our solution does not require any additional infrastructure! In concrete terms, this means that the user does not have to invest in further expansion and conversion measures.
General information on AGV navigation
Driverless transport systems require navigation systems for orientation in space. In a first approximation, positioning is done via odometry (the measurement of position based on the rotational speeds of the drive wheels).
Due to slippage and tolerances in the system, odometry inevitably leads to a drift of the assumed position. Errors accumulate with every metre driven to an ever greater deviation. With navigation systems, automated guided vehicles therefore determine their absolute position and correct their odometrically determined driving course.
In the world of automated guided vehicles (AGVs), various navigation technologies have become established; among others:
- Track guidance by means of inductive stringline
- Optical line tracking through image processing
- Magnetic grid
- RFID transponder positioning
- Laser navigation with reflective markers
- Laser navigation on natural contours
- SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping)
Laser navigation takes a leading position. Here, a rotating laser measures the distance to contours or reflectors in the environment point by point. Laser navigation has the significant advantage that little or no intervention in the infrastructure is necessary.
Robust and safe: AGV laser navigation
- Utilisation of safety laser scanners - autonomous obstacle detection and collision avoidance - no additional laser scanners required for navigation
- Automated picking up of loads
- Orients itself to the existing conditions
- Fast commissioning; user-friendly mapping
- No additional inductive wires, magnets or reflectors necessary
- Thereby: Realisation of flexible and varied logistics!
- Safety is important and a matter of course for us, because despite its flexibility, the automated guided vehicle system is always safe on the road. The dynamic safety and warning zone alignment of the laser scanners automatically adapts to the driving situation, so there are no dead zones.
Free laser navigation - the ideal technology for the CALL THE DONKEY-AGV
Free laser navigation and DONKEYmotion transport systems form a perfect synergy and thus realise a highly flexible and easy-to-install AGV.