<p>The effectiveness of a material handling system is essential to a
competitive manufacturing environment. Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGVs) are
an irnportant technology within today's modern manufacturing facility. Academic
programs in manufacturing and industrial engineering must find ways to include
this technology in their instructional and research programs to provide the
students with sufficient knowledge to address material handling systems design.
This project was a first step in the development of such a facility at Virginia
Polytechnic Institute and State University.</p>
<p>
This project accomplished two main objectives. The first one was to
create a functional AGV system with the "Orbitor" Automatic Guided Vehicle that
incorporates advanced hardware features. This system included a taped guide
path with bar codes on the floor, and the communication linkage via wire and
radio frequency between the Orbitor on-board computer and a remote computer.
The second objective was to establish a software system for the overall control of
the Orbitor AGV system. This objective involved creating software for the
on-board computer and the remote computer. Software communication protocols
were implemented and tested between the remote computer and the Automatic
Dispatching Unit, and between the Intersection and Communications Unit and the
on-board computer. The user of this system was able to interactively define tasks
for the AGV from the remote computer. The AGV provided feedback to the
remote computer on the status of the vehicle and it sent appropriate messages
when the tasks were complete.</p> / Master of Engineering
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/45280 |
| Date | 24 October 2009 |
| Creators | Lu, Roberto F. |
| Contributors | Industrial and Systems Engineering, Deisenroth, Michael P., Reasor, Roderick J. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Master's project |
| Format | BTD, application/pdf |
| Relation | LD5655.V851_1994.L8.pdf |
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