An Autonomous Guided Vehicle for Cargo Handling Applications

Abstract

This article describes an autonomous guided vehicle (AGV) system designed to transport ISO standard cargo containers in port environments. The AGV consists of a large 17.5-ton chassis, which is driven and steered through a diesel-hydraulic power set. The vehicle drives on pneumatic wheels over un prepared road surfaces at speeds up to 6 m/s. The navigation system is based on the use of millimeter-wave radar sensors detecting beacons placed at known locations in the environ ment. The navigation system reliably achieves accuracies of better than 3 cm. The planning and control systems allow the AGV to operate in the quay and yard area, to dock with gantry cranes, and to achieve a duty cycle comparable to that of a conventional manned vehicle. This article concentrates on describing three principal contributions of this work: the de sign of the overall vehicle and on-board systems architecture; the development of a navigation system appropriate for large, outdoor, high-speed vehicles; and the experimental program leading to validation of the vehicle system.

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