As the global manufacturing industry transforms towards intelligence and digitalization, in this era of rapid development of AI technology, the application scope of AGV industrial robots has penetrated into all aspects of the manufacturing industry and has become an indispensable part of modern factories.

AGV industrial robots can not only improve production efficiency and reduce labor costs, but also improve the logistics and transportation of enterprises and the smoothness of production lines. Industrial robots are present in stamping, die-casting, forging, machining, welding, heat treatment, surface coating, loading and unloading, assembly, transportation, testing and warehouse stacking.

This article will discuss the working principle of AGV industrial robots, hoping to help companies or factories understand and understand AGV industrial robots.

1. What is an AGV industrial robot?

AGV (Automated Guided Vehicle) is an automatic guided vehicle. AGV refers to a transport vehicle equipped with electromagnetic or optical automatic guidance devices. It can travel along a prescribed guidance path and has protection and various transfer functions. AGV belongs to The category of wheeled mobile robot is an automated equipment that can drive autonomously on a preset path and perform tasks such as material handling and transportation.

Compared with traditional manual handling methods, AGV industrial robots can reduce traditional manual labor, improve the efficiency of material transportation, and can continue to operate in complex environments with high reliability and accuracy. It can be widely used in warehousing, manufacturing, ports, terminals and airports, tobacco, medicine, food and various hazardous places and special industries.

2. Classification of AGV industrial robots

The core technology of AGV industrial robots is its autonomous navigation system. Usually, there are several AGV navigation methods: magnetic stripe navigation, QR code navigation, laser navigation, natural navigation (slam), V-SLAM navigation and visual navigation.

Magnetic stripe guide:

The AGV achieves guidance by burying metal wires underground and sensing the magnetic signals emitted by the metal wires through vehicle-mounted electromagnetic sensors. The advantages of this guidance technology are that it is simple in principle, free from sound and light interference, and has low manufacturing costs. The disadvantage is that it is difficult to expand and change the route later. , easily damaged and requiring regular maintenance; it can only walk along the magnetic strip and cannot realize intelligent avoidance or real-time change of tasks through the control system, nor can it change tasks in real time during work, and is easily interfered by magnetic substances such as metal.

QR code guidance:

The lens collects the QR code image and analyzes its coordinate value and direction information to know its own position and orientation. It is currently a more mainstream guidance type. Where there is no QR code, the motor odometer and gyroscope are used for navigation and positioning. The advantages are low sensor cost, low environmental requirements, and stable field of view of the lower lens.

Laser Navigation:

The laser scanner collects the laser beam reflected by the reflective plate to determine its current position and direction, and realizes AGV navigation through continuous triangular geometric operations.

The advantage is that AGV positioning is accurate, the driving path on the ground can be flexible and changeable without the need for other positioning facilities, and it can be suitable for a variety of on-site environments. The disadvantage is that lasers and reflectors are expensive. The environmental requirements are relatively stringent.

Natural navigation (slam):

Laser scanners collect laser beams reflected by the natural environment (walls, pillars, and other fixed objects) to determine their current position and direction. The advantages are: low installation cost and flexible walking path; the disadvantage is high cost and relatively strict environmental requirements.

V-SLAM navigation:

The lens collects ground texture features in advance and assigns their coordinate values ​​and direction information. When the robot scans this texture again, it will match the previous collection database and learn the current texture image information.

Collecting texture libraries requires a lot of work; it does not cooperate with QR code navigation for the time being; the technology is still being improved and will not be widely promoted for the time being.

Visual navigation:

The working mechanism is similar to that of the human eye. Based on the principle of triangulation and ranging, it realizes three-dimensional space perception by analyzing the difference in images collected by two sensors. The advantage is that it has great potential and optimizes space; the disadvantage is that it has strict requirements on the environment, especially light.

In conclusion

As an important part of intelligent manufacturing, AGV industrial robots are changing the production and logistics models of all walks of life with their efficiency, accuracy, and flexibility. With the continuous advancement of technology, AGV robots will become more intelligent and collaborative, and expand their applications to more industries. For enterprises, investing and applying AGV industrial robots is undoubtedly an important measure to improve productivity, reduce costs and enhance competitiveness. In the future wave of intelligence, AGV industrial robots will undoubtedly play a more important role.