Traveling course interpolation method for automatic guided vehicle systems with discrete reference markers

A traveling course interpolation method is proposed for controlling automatic guided vehicles with discrete reference markers. The controller can calculate the present position and direction from wheel rotational speeds. The controller guesses a future reference marker position using the information of the past two reference marker positions. Thus, the vehicle can travel test courses with discrete reference markers with larger marker spaces. The experiments verified that the proposed method can successfully guide the experimental vehicle along the various types of test courses