Abstract A new generation of Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGV) virtualises their Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) in the cloud deploying 5G-based communication infrastructures to provide ultra-fast and reliable links between AGV its PLC. Stopping an can result a loss tens thousands euros per minute therefore, use machine learning techniques anticipate behavior seems be appropriate. This work p...

Automatic Guided Vehicles or AGVs are increasingly being used in manufacturing plants for transportation tasks. Optimal scheduling of AGVs is a difficult problem. A learning AGV is very attractive in a manufacturing plant since it is hard to manually optimize the scheduling algorithm to each new situation. In this paper we compare four reinforcement learning methods for scheduling AGVs. Q-learn...

Students following the Mechatronics Program stream at the University of Waikato often continue to a MSc degree that can involve the design of, or modification to, an Autonomous Guided Vehicle (AGV). Our challenge is to inspire and extend the capabilities of these students, a success that can perhaps be measured by the sophistication of the AGVs currently being produced by our graduates.

Hierarchical reinforcement learning (RL) is a general framework which studies how to exploit the structure of actions and tasks to accelerate policy learning in large domains. Prior work in hierarchical RL, such as the MAXQ method, has been limited to the discrete-time discounted reward semiMarkov decision process (SMDP) model. This paper generalizes the MAXQ method to continuous-time discounte...

This paper focuses on the design of a highly efficient Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) transportation system. Therefore, we attempt to construct detailed system management models that include agent cooperation, container storage scheduling, and container transportation planning. We then optimally design systems that are constructed with the use of these management models. The systems are compare...

AGV systems are now becoming widely used in automatic material handling systems. One of the issues arising in applications is routing. This paper presents a bi-directional path layout and an algorithm for routing AGVs without conflicts. Mathematical relationships among certain key parameters of path and vehicle are derived to minimize the space requirements of the layout. The routing efficiency...

In this paper, we present the design and performance analysis of an innovative system for tracking Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) in indoor industrial scenarios. An on-board odometer provides information about the dynamic state of the AGV, allowing to predict its pose (i.e., its position and orientation). At the same time, an external Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) wireless network provides the inform...

We compare two approaches for a Markovian model in flexible manufacturing systems (FMSs) using Monte Carlo simulation. The model which is a development of Fazlollahtabar and Saidi-Mehrabad (2013), considers two features of automated flexible manufacturing systems equipped with automated guided vehicle (AGV) namely, the reliability of machines and the reliability of AGVs in a multiple AGV jobsho...