An automated guided logistics robot for pallet transportation

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to present an automated guided logistics robot mainly designed for pallet transportation. Logistics robot is compactly designed. It could pick up the pallet precisely and transport the pallet up to 1,000 kg automatically in the warehouse. It could move freely in all directions without turning the chassis. It could work without any additional infrastructure based on laser navigation system proposed in this work. Design/methodology/approach Logistics robot should be able to move underneath and lift up the pallet accurately. Logistics robot mainly consists of two sub-robots, like two forks of the forklift. Each sub-robot has front and rear driving units. A new compact driving unit is compactly designed as a key component to ensure access to the narrow free entry of the pallet. Besides synchronous motions in all directions, the two sub-robots should also perform synchronous lifting up and laying down the pallet. Logistics robot uses a front laser to detect obstacles and locate itself using on-board navigation system. A rear laser is used to recognize and guide the sub-robots to pick up the pallet precisely within ± 5mm/1o in x-/yaw direction. Path planning algorithm under different constraints is proposed for logistics robot to obey the traffic rules of pallet logistics. Findings Compared with the traditional forklift vehicles, logistics robot has the advantages of more compact structure and higher expandability. It can realize the omnidirectional movement flexibly without turning the chassis and take zero-radius turn by controlling compact driving units synchronously. Logistics robot can move collision-free into any pallet that has not been precisely placed. It can plan the paths for returning to charge station and charge automatically. So it can work uninterruptedly for 7 × 24 h. Path planning algorithm proposed can avoid traffic congestion and improve the passability of the narrow roads to improve logistics efficiencies. Logistics robot is quite suitable for the standardized logistics factory with small working space. Originality/value This is a new innovation for pallet transportation vehicle to improve logistics automation.

Changes in Logistics Processes Caused by the Implementation of Automation in Transport

“…the cost of end-of-life for non-autonomous vehicles, the need for autonomous vehicles to adapt to freight transport and to achieve their expected performance and safety standards in operation. However, autonomous fleets known as Connected Autonomous Vehicles (CAV) will become more widely used and help fill transit gaps or provide dedicated solutions for large enclosed areas such as airports (Lin et al, 2020), university campuses or technology parks.…”

“…That should be considered a perspective at least over the next 5-10 years. The necessity of introducing autonomous vehicles in modern logistics has already been noticed in the literature on the subject (Lin et al, 2020).…”

An EKF-based multiple data fusion for mobile robot indoor localization

“…With the development of the control, sensor and mechanical techniques, the robot has brought the influence of transformation to humans' lifestyles and production methods in terms of humanmachine interaction (Yang et al, 2018a;Wen and Chen, 2020;Huang et al, 2019;Huang et al, 2020), machine vision (Qiao et al, 2013;Qiao et al, 2014) and special applications (Lin et al, 2020;Yang et al, 2018b). For example, the mobile robot can help humans to detect unknown environments and provides useful information to humans for decision-making (Chen et al, 2020a;Zong et al, 2020).…”

Obstacle Avoidance Control for Multisteering Mode of Multiaxle Wheeled Robot Based on Trajectory Prediction Strategy

“…At present, most robots can only turn their front wheels or part of the wheels, which results in low flexibility and requires a large turning space. erefore, some studies have been carried out from the perspective of wheel steering control, mainly including four-wheel steering [46], multiwheel steering [47], and trailer following control driving [48]. However, these studies do not consider the multimode steering problem of the multiaxle robot.…”