Title :
Flexible transport system by cooperation of conveyer-loaded AGVs
Author :
Ota, Jun ; Arai, Tamio ; Inoue, Kousuke ; Chiba, Ryousuke ; Hirano, Tomokazu
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Precision Machinery Eng., Tokyo Univ., Japan
Abstract :
A transport module for constructing an efficient and flexible material handling system are proposed in the paper: an AGV (automated guided vehicle) module loaded a conveyer in which it is possible to hand-over operation between two modules. The operation can solve the deadlock problem among AGVs in the process of material handling. Prototype modules are created and hand-over experiments are made to measure motion characteristics of the modules. Transport simulations are made for a model plant layout by using values from former experiments. The results show the effectiveness of the proposed module from the viewpoint of transport efficiency, especially for cellular-type or process-type plant layouts
Keywords :
automatic guided vehicles; conveyors; flexible manufacturing systems; automated guided vehicle; cellular-type plant layouts; conveyer-loaded AGVs; deadlock problem; flexible transport system; hand-over experiments; motion characteristics; process-type plant layouts; prototype modules; transport efficiency; transport module; Automation; Costs; Cranes; Humans; Machinery; Manufacturing; Materials handling; Production systems; System recovery; Vehicles;
Conference_Titel :
Robotics and Automation, 2000. Proceedings. ICRA '00. IEEE International Conference on
Conference_Location :
San Francisco, CA
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-5886-4
DOI :
10.1109/ROBOT.2000.844753
