A Coordination Technique for Automatic Guided Vehicles in an Industrial Environment

Abstract In this paper we propose a methodology for coordinating a group of mobile robots that go through predefined paths in a dynamic industrial environment. The technique is developed to be implemented into a real industrial framework. Coordination diagrams are used for representing the possible collisions among the vehicles. We exploit this information for developing a centralized and incremental planning algorithm that allows to coordinate the vehicles and to take into account unexpected events that can occur in an industrial environment. Simulation tests considering a real plant have been executed in order to compare the performance of our technique with the one currently implemented by the company.