Travel-Area Monitoring for Intelligent Free-Ranging Automatic Guided Vehicle (AGV) Control

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9322834 Kay The objective of this research is to develop a system to control multiple free-ranging automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) by monitoring the travel areas of the vehicles in a facility. The monitoring process is to be achieved through the use of overhead cameras to cover large areas of heavy traffic and other types of sensors for areas where the use of cameras is considered to be uneconomical. Travel area monitoring can fully exploit the potential capabilities of these vehicles to provide low-cost, flexible, and safe long distance materials handling in a dynamic indoor environment. Area monitoring will ensure the identification of short travel time routes for vehicles moving between points. The research addresses a problem that has significant implications in material handling and the operation of the factories of the future. It is particularly useful in environments where the aisles are shared by different mobile devices, including operating personnel. The use of free-ranging AGVs offers some flexibility that wire-guided AGVs do not offer. Their control in the work area is more challenging, data intensive, and taxing in terms of computational requirements.