Design and Implementation of New AGV System Based on Two-layer Controller Structure

Automated guided vehicle (AGV) is playing an major role in industrial applications to move materials around a manufacturing facility or warehouse. As task complexity increases, however, the traditional design of AGV can't meet user's demands any longer. Therefore, a new AGV control system is introduced in this paper, which is designed by the two-layer controller system structure. This structure includes the lower computer and the upper computer, which is the main controller with autonomous navigation functions. To exchange control messages, there is also a special communication protocol between the two controllers. In addition, different algorithms and circuits are designed according to the differences of each task and the characters of two controllers. The implementation approaches are presented in both hardware and algorithms as well. Finally, a series of experiments has been done, and the results show that the AGV from this new two-layer controller system design has perfect performance in motion, localization, path planning and other aspects.