self-adaptive radio-based indoor/outdoor positioning for resilient Automated Guided Vehicle

Industry 4.0 demands increased flexibility of transport systems for industrial manufacturing. In this project, a lane-guided automated guided vehicle (AGV) is to be fundamentally developed into a self-navigating AGV without lane guidance. The aim is to make the sensor technology so resilient that uninterrupted navigation can be realized in industrial environments for indoor, outdoor and their transition areas. For this purpose, the measured values of two RF measurement methods (UWB & BLE), a virtual odometry, an inertial measurement system are evaluated by means of a RO-SLAM algorithm and fed to an intelligent navigation algorithm with sensor data fusion. Due to the dynamic generation and organization of ranging subnets, application areas can be easily extended by additional setup of wireless anchors. Route area and spear areas can be quickly learned by teach-in. Overall, this results in higher flexibility and operational reliability for AGVs.

Tasks ITVS:

  • map creation & adaptation (base + extension map)
  • algorithms for self setup and calibration in UWB/BLE networks
  • sensor data fusion (target values, virtual odometry, inertial sensors, UWB/BLE)
  • navigation algorithms
  • with the development of a self-calibration, navigation algorithms (RO-SLAM), the safety-related functions and central control functions, the transition to an AGV without optical or mechanical tracking is achieved

Project partner:

Duration: 01.11.2021 - 30.07.2024

Sponsor: German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, ZIM Central Innovation Program for SMEs

Contact: Paul Schwarzbach

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Robert Richter
Last modified: Mar 28, 2023