Development of Automated Guided Vehicles for Industrial Logistics Applications in Developing Countries Using Appropriate Technology

With the advancements of robotic technologies, the industrial environments are adopting more and more aspects of automation to enhance product quality and accuracy and to reduce product cost. One of these aspects is the use of Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) which is gaining importance in industrial logistics and transportation systems. However, in case of developing countries like Bangladesh, the development and utilization of such sophisticated systems are not always cost effective. An initiative was taken to design and fabricate a group of low cost automated guided vehicles to perform logistics in a quasi industrial environment. The group consisted of two robotic vehicles that were capable of carrying certain workpieces and supplying these to a predefined unloading location. These robots were microcontroller operated and were reprogrammable to accommodate the possible changes those in real industrial environment. Test runs were performed by programming these for maneuvering through both linear and curved trajectories. An imaginary industrial environment was prepared in the laboratory and the robots went through several successful test runs that validated the effectiveness of the prototypes. The research highlights the possibility of AGVs for the logistics purposes at reasonable cost using appropriate