Improving safety and efficiency of AGVs at warehouse black spots

In order to achieve safe operation of automated guided vehicles (AGVs) at warehouse black spots such as intersections, AGVs decelerate before reaching them. Having crossed the black spot, they reaccelerate back to full speed. Most of the time, the black spot is void of other vehicles or workers, so this programmed behavior is unnecessary and thus very inefficient. To overcome this inefficiency, the black spot can be monitored by an infrastructure-based environment perception system consisting of one or several laser scanners in combination with a data processing electronic control unit (ECU). The presence of objects in the black spot is communicated to approaching AGVs via a control center, allowing the AGV to pass the black spot at full speed if there are no other objects present and only decelerating if there are other objects present.