Decentralized autonomous AGV system for material handling

Decentralized control of an autonomous automated guided vehicle system (AGVS) used for material handling is expected to lead to high system flexibility and robustness. A complete control methodology for decentralized autonomous AGVS control was developed and implemented in a computer-integrated manufacturing environment. The methodology addresses all aspects of AGVS functionality: system management, navigation and load transfer. Hierarchical fuzzy behaviour-based control, a reactive navigation scheme, was expanded to multirobot control in semistructured environments by incorporating a priori path optimization and right-of-the-way determination.