The Perugina warehouse has been automated with and the company wanted to extend the automatic control to the picking from production and storage for shipping (previously it was done manually).

This AGV traffic control software consists of eight AGVs that follow a magnetic track and communicate with the central computer via infrared communication.

Missions are created using digital signals in the field. Given the very long layout, the most challenging task was to ensure the AGVs always choose the shortest routes; this objective was achieved thanks to close integration between the development of the on-board layout software and the Perugina AGV traffic control system.

Over the years, various updates have been made to both the AGV cart components and the AGV traffic control system at Perugina.

AGV navigation type: inductive wire guidance

Traffic controller: 486 PC, in warm backup, with Digiboard multiserial ports, connected to all devices on the layout, DI/DO signals and infrared transreceivers to communicate with AGVs, plus a serial communication line to communicate with the host.

Charging concept: before the warehouse, a charging area has been defined, divided in two rows, with a fifo concept. As well a long contact has been used on the layout, to let the AGV charge while driving. This was needed due to the big layout and energy used by the AGV to cover the whole distance. We couldn’t keep the AGV on chargers when no mission as the travel time to the station on the opposite side is too much, so we used an idle loop concept instead, so that the probability that an AGV was arriving to a station with a mission was higer.

This AGV system is working over three shifts.

Number of AGVs: 8

AGV manufacturer: Digitron

Function: AGV traffic controller development, order handling.

Year: 1995