Productivity Applications 10/15 - Automated Guided Vehicles

Sensata’s functional safety encoders rated to SIL3/PLe, Cat.4, are ideal for use in AGVs to ensure highest system safety.

The future of AGVs will undoubtedly be autonomous: systems that are adaptive and feature intelligence-based capabilities that allow them to respond within boundaried domains to situations that were not pre-programmed in the design. Autonomous vehicles for use in factories, industrial facilities, retail outlets, warehouses, etc., can be categorized into four distinct ‘types’: forklift trucks (moving goods horizontally and vertically), pallet lift trucks (horizontal only), tow vehicles and unit load carriers (to convey heavy goods from conveyor to assembly line).

Hand-in-hand with the navigation and steering technologies comes a wide range of sensors that provide critical feedback to the control system about the AGV’s surroundings and operation. The sensors used to navigate, like radar and cameras, and those used to control ground speed and direction, like encoders, are critical to ensure precise and safe operation.