Path Tracking for Autonomously Guided Vehicles by Using Wireless Passive Resonators

Autonomously guided vehicles (AGVs) have been increasingly used in a wide range of application areas, including industrial automation. The use of AGVs in industry enables automated, safe, and efficient accomplishment of a certain set of tasks in a factory space or warehouse. A novel approach for the guidance of a path-following AGV based on microwave resonators is the focus of this work. The navigation is based on a microwave lateral alignment sensor that detects resonant elements that make up the path. Compared to traditional sensors and guidance techniques currently available, the novel microwave sensor system for AGV navigation proposed in this work has the advantage of being reliable and robust to harsh operating conditions as it is based on passive resonating elements and the detection of the path does not require any line of sight. This article presents the basic working principle of the proposed sensor and the sensing concept is verified through numerical simulations and experimental measurements. The obtained results have demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed sensor in achieving reliable path-following performance, even in the case where the path was placed under a flooring cover. In addition, this article also presents a completely passive reconfigurable path-following capability by exploiting the different operating frequencies of the sensor probes.