Online velocity planner for Laser Guided Vehicles subject to safety constraints

Laser Guided Vehicles (LGV) are largely used in industrial contexts for the autonomous dispatching of huge loads. LGVs of automated warehouses are driven by supervisory systems which assign their tasks depending on the process demands. The vehicle workspace is partially structured and it is normally shared with several independent agents like other LGVs, or human operated forklifts, or humans which directly interact with the vehicle itself. For efficiency and for safety reasons, LGVs move along pre-defined paths so that, if an unexpected obstacle is detected, they must be promptly stopped so as to avoid impacts. As shown in the paper, the safety problem is normally handled by limiting the plant productivity. This is clearly an improper approach, which can be overcome by considering a novel velocity planning strategy. The one proposed in this paper guarantees high safety standards, thus preserving the physical integrity of human coworkers, by simultaneously improving the plant productivity.