Automated Guided Vehicle for Precise Floor Marking

Abstract

Modern factories and production areas have to be equipped with a lot of machines and tools for a sufficient production process. Limited space and dependency of different process steps require a precise and optimised positioning of all equipment. Based on the factory size hundreds and sometimes thousands of points have to be marked on the floor to finally drill holes that the production equipment can be fixed at the right location.

In general, the transfer of the floor layout from plan to reality is a well-known setting out process which can be done with measurement systems like Totalstations or Lasertrackers. However, this measurement procedure is well established, but especially with a large number of points, that marking process can become very critical and for the user even painful. To get this layout process efficient done the user needs some additional tools which guarantees that the reflector centre corresponds exactly with the marking position and secures the correct result. In addition, the user faces some physical pain (knees and backbone) if 300 points a day have to be marked at the floor.

Each user immediately wants to get an automated solution for these types of tasks and the development of an automated guided vehicle for floor marking was the logical consequence. Some basic development requirements were obviously, like

• autonomous movement of the vehicle without cable connection,

• free movements in all directions,

• guided by the reflector of the master system (Totalstation or Lasertracker),

• controlled and precise positioning and visible marking on the floor including some labelling (e.g. point number) and

• wireless system communication.

Further basic requirements are:

• easy but robust handling

• on-board powering of all energy consumers,

• robust independent controlled moto-drives,

• a specific printing unit for position marking with writing capability

• some fundamental safety features for collision avoidance,

• system status indicators and

• an external software package on a laptop computer for the complete system control and working procedure.

Beside these basics, the main development tasks are located in a number of details. The following paper describes the hardware configuration as well as the system functionality. In addition, some details about the development steps including first experiences and measurement results with the first prototype vehicle are reported.

The final development target are to get an improved AGV-Marking Device as a product on the market in 3rd quarter 2022 which is able to automatically mark points on the floor with an performance in the range of 100 point per hour.