IDMME 2006

Grenoble, France, May 17-19, 2006

SELF-ALIGNMENT CONTROL OF AN AUTOMATED UNGUIDED VEHICLE

Suthep Butdee
Thai French Innovation Center, King Mongkuts Institute of Technology North, Bangkok, 1518 Piboonsongkram Rd. Bangsue, Bangkok, Thailand 10800, stb@kmitnb.ac.th

Frederic Vignat
3S Laboratory, Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble, France, frederic.vignat@inpg.fr

Anan Suebsomran
Department of Teacher Training in Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Technical and Education, King Mongkuts Institute of Technology North Bangkok, 1518 Piboonsongkram Rd. Bangsue, Bangkok, Thailand 10800, Email: asr@kmitnb.ac.th

Abstract:
In this paper a control strategy of Automated Unguided Vehicle (AUV) is proposed. The vehicle movement controlled by an inboard PLC do not need physical guide. The vehicle has 3 wheels. The front wheel is used for steering and driving. The 2 rear wheels are free and equipped with 2 encoders. The strategy is based on 2 main purposes: the path is stored in the PLC memory and the vehicle displacement is calculated form the wheel rotation measurement. The comparison between the required path and the actual position of the AUV allow calculating deviation error. Function of this error, a correction strategy of driving speed and steering angle, is applied in order to get a smooth and precise displacement.

Keyword: Automated Unguided Vehicle (AUV), PLC, Kinematics model, error deviation, PD controller 1 Introduction Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) is researched on several structures. Since normally the AGV system is applied in factory for transportation purpose, these vehicles are mostly automatic navigation in a fixed-guided path by specific route for travelling. AGV still requires the signal to make decision of movement within the entire route. In this paper we propose the control approach of AGV by consider the kinematics model of AGV. Without any required signal transmission guide, the paths of movement are planed for automatic navigation. The paths are composed of straight and circular paths. The proposed approach deals with the useless of wire-guide system for automatic movement, as compared to many researches such as [1] stated that the track layout and the number of AGV in transportation control on a jobshop and a flow-shop were determined by using the queuing network theory. [2] proposed the operation control method by using two AGV systems. They solved the problem in scheduling method of AGV model based on Petri nets. The formulation and heuristic search were used by global search in order to seek the optimal operation of the entire FMS, and guided path selection problem by wire-guide was proposed by [3]. They proposed an approach for material flow modelling based on mathematical optimisation method. With this approach,

IDMME 2006

Grenoble, France, May 17-19, 2006

they obtained the guide path layout design with wire-guided vehicles. The objective of optimization model is the minimization of the total distance travelled by vehicles to transport the material handing system. The route planning of AGV was proposed by [4], [5], [6]. Not only the AGV moved along the path with collision avoidance, but also it should be navigated with no deadlock condition as done by [7]. They formulated the control algorithm by digraph method in real-time path assignment to the vehicles. The deadlock control of AGV was controlled by coloured resource-oriented Petri net model method to deal with the conflict free in real-time control as shown in [6]. The other papers were proposed the control of AGV by using fuzzy logic control as shown in [8], [9]. The AGV was guided by photoelectric guide way. The designed controller has the self-adjustment of control parameter by fuzzy controller. [9] proposed the steering control of AGV by using fuzzy control. The AGV was guided by guide tape. [10] studied the intelligent path following and control for vision-based automated guided vehicle. They presented the control path following of AGV by vision control system, and multi-sensors was also applied in real time steering control. In this paper we propose the automatic navigation control of the AGV without any wireguide signal to transportation system as automated unguided vehicle (AUV) system. It is organized as follows. The system architecture is explained in section 2. Section 3 deals with the kinematics model of the UAV and the path definition. Section 4 presents the control system. In section 5, the simulation and experiment of AUV implementation is described, and the conclusion and recommendation are given in section 6. 2 System Architecture

Figure 1: Picture of the AUV prototype The AUV prototype design is based on existing JUMBO industrial truck as shown figure 1. It is a three wheels vehicle as shown in figure 2. The front wheel is used for driving and steering the AUV and the two rear wheels are free. The steering and driving are DC motor. Two encoders are individually attached on the two rear wheels in order to measure the vehicle displacement and then calculate its real time position and orientation. The choice of

IDMME 2006

Grenoble, France, May 17-19, 2006

positioning the encoders on the free wheels provides to the vehicle an accurate measurement of its progression. A programmable logic control (PLC) is used for motion control.

front

W
Control point

R T

rear

Figure 2: the AUV prototype architecture The parameters of the motion are driving speed and steering angle which determine the evolution of the position and orientation of the AUV. The input and output signal are interfaced with PLC module. The inputs are the encoder signal from left and right rear wheels. The driving speed and steering angle are calculated form these inputs and the digital output is converted to analog signal to drive amplifier of the driving motor and steering motor on front wheel as shown in figure 3.

PLC
Analog output Analog output HS counter HS counter

Driving motor DC Motor + amplifier

Analog control

Steering motor DC Motor + amplifier

left rear wheel encoder right rear wheel encoder

Figure 3: the AUV prototype command architecture

IDMME 2006

Grenoble, France, May 17-19, 2006

3 Path definition and Kinematics Model of the AUV The required path of the AUV is be defined by line and circle as shown in figure 3. The path is constructed in order to guide the vehicle movement and stored in the memory of the PLC. During the vehicle movement an error will occur between the actual position P(t) of the AUV and the defined path as shown figure 4.

Position of the vehicle (x,y) Calculated by PLC from Rear wheel speed informations L(2) d : calculated error C(2) Path :defined by line and circles L(1)

C(1)

Figure 4: path description AUV movement is modelled on the basis of the kinematics analysis. The position and orientation are defined at the instants t and t+dt by figure 5 below. Two coordinate systems are defined; AUV (X1,Y1) and world (X,Y) coordinate systems. The initial position P(t) at the point (X1,Y1) and the initial orientation (t) are defined.

Yl(t+dt) P(t+dt) Xl(t) Yl(t) P(t) Y X (t)

Xl(t+dt) (t+dt)

R(t)

(t)

Figure 5: Kinematics model of an AUV

IDMME 2006

Grenoble, France, May 17-19, 2006

The position and orientation at t+dt are calculated in vehicle coordinate system at instant t by equation (1)
R sin( ) P(t + dt)(Xl(t ),Yl(t )) = R ( cos ( ) 1)
(1)

The position and orientation are transformed from vehicle coordinate to the world coordinate (X,Y) system in order to determine the new position of the AUV using equation (2).
cos ( ( t ) ) sin ( ( t ) ) R sin( ) P(t + dt) = + P(t) sin ( ( t ) ) cos ( ( t ) ) R ( cos ( ) 1) (t + dt) = (t) (t)

(2)

Equation (2) can then be written using the left encoder pulse increment (lpi) and right encoder pulse increment (rpi).

( lpi + rpi ) R wheel N pr cos ( ( t ) ) sin ( ( t ) ) + P(t) 2 P(t + dt) = sin ( ( t ) ) cos ( ( t ) ) R wheel ( lpi + rpi )( lpi rpi ) N pr T ( lpi rpi ) R wheel (t + dt) = (t) 2 N pr T

(3)

The actual position P(t) of the vehicle being determined the deviation error can be calculated. For linear path, the error is determined between the vehicle point P(t) and the line which is starting at point Ps and ending at point Pe as shown figure 6 a). For the circular path, the error is determined between the vehicle point P(t) and the circle of center Pc, starting point Ps and ending point Pe, as shown figure 6 b).

Pe Pe
deviation deviation

P(t)

Pc Ps
progress

P(t) Ps
progress

a). Error evaluation of a line b). Error evaluation of a circle Figure 6: path deviation evaluation

IDMME 2006

Grenoble, France, May 17-19, 2006

The error deviation of linear path is calculated by the equation (4) below.
PsPe dl = PsP (t ) PsPe

(4)

Where dl is the error deviation of linear path, Ps is the starting point, Pe is the end point, and P(t) is the current position. The error deviation of circular path is calculated by the equation (5) below. d c = distance(Pc, P(t)) radius
(5)

Where dc is the error deviation of circular path, Pc is the center point of curve, and P(t) is the current position. The sign is plus (+) when turning left and minus (-) when turning right.
4 Control System of the AUV

The deviation error being evaluated, the steering and driving command signal can be calculated and converted to analog signal by the PLC. The steering and driving control strategy are showed by the to simple block diagram figure 7. The correction applied to the command signal is a proportional one for the driving signal and proportional derivative for the steering signal.
Vehicle speed Path + d Correction PLC + Us Motor and transmission s

L(,v)

Vehicle position

Measured by the 2 rear encoders Measured by the 2 rear encoders

Speed demand

PLC + Correction Ud Motor and transmission

Vehicle speed

Measured by the 2 rear encoders

Figure 7: block diagram of steering and driving control The control algorithm of the AUV has been implemented by using PLC TSX micro form SCHNEIDER. The implemented program is written by PL7 Pro using Grafcet as shown figure 8 and structured text language. The main inputs of the PLC are the 2 high speed up and down counter connected to the 2 encoders. The outputs of steering and driving command are converted to analog output ranged by 0-5 V. The Grafcet loop execute 3 consecutive tasks: 20 is used for reading the input value from encoder and to calculate vehicle new position and

IDMME 2006

Grenoble, France, May 17-19, 2006

deviation error, 30 is used to apply correction and calculate output signal and in 40 the output signal is sent to output module of PLC. This loop is executed every 5 ms.

Figure 8: AUV control Grafcet

5 Simulation and Tested Experiment

In this section, the developed algorithm of the AUV is firstly tested by simulation method using LABVIEW software as shown figure 9. All architecture parameters are obtained from the AUV information such as dimension, gear ratio, motor parameter etc. The control parameters are estimated by this simulation and the next step, physical tests, can therefore be performed.

Figure 9: Labview simulation window

IDMME 2006

Grenoble, France, May 17-19, 2006

The tests reveal a smooth movement and a calculated error maintained within 10 mm which is for the first step a convenient result. The tests reveal also some none detected errors due to floor imperfection and a new loop of control will have to be added in order to correct this.
6 Conclusion

In this paper, An Automated Unguided Vehicle (AUV) is presented. The developed algorithm is based on memorised path and cinematic determination of the movement. The vehicle position and deviation are calculated from rear wheels rotation measurement. The steering and driving command are determined from this deviation. A Schneider PLC is used to implement this control. The tests reveal a smooth movement and convenient deviation. The first prototype working, the next research steps will be development of a correction system to correct none detected errors. It will also be necessary to develop the fleet management strategy and software.
7 Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank the Schneider electric for Automation solution and JUMBO, industrial trucks manufacturer, to support the AUV prototype construction.
8 References
[1] R. J. Mentel and H. R.A. Landeweerd, Design and operation control of an AGV system, International Journal of Production Economics, Vol. 41 (1995), pp. 257-256 [2] M. Gourgand, X-C. Sun and N. Tchernev, Choice of the Guide Path Layout for an AGV Based Material Handling, IEEE, 1995, pp. 475-483 [3] P-S. Liu and L-C Fu, Planning and Scheduling in a Flexible Manufacturing System Using a Dynamic Routing Method for Automated Guided Vehicles, IEEE, 1989, pp. 1584-1589 [4] Naiqi Wu and M-C. ZFou, AGV Routing for Conflict Planning and Scheduling in a Flexible Manufacturing System Using at Resolution in AGV Systems, Proceeding of the 2003 IEEE International Conference on Robotics & Automation, Taipei, Taiwan, September 14-19,2003, pp. 1428-1433 [5] Naiqi Wu and M-C. ZFou, Modeling and Deadlock Control of Automated Guided Vehicle Systems, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, Vol. 9, NO. 1, March 2004, pp.50-57 [6] M. P. Fanti and B. Turchiano, Deadlock Avoidance in Automated Guided Vehicle Systems, 2001 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics Proceedings, Como, Italy, 8-12 July 2001, pp.1017- 1022 [7] Y. Dianyong and X. Hui, Application of Fuzzy Control Method to AGV, Proceeding of the 2003 IEEE International Conference on Robotics, Intelligent Systems and Signal Processing,Changsha, Chaina, October 2003, pp.768-772 [8] S. Senoo, M. Mino and S. Funabiki, Steering Control of Automated Guided Vehicle for Steering Energy Saving by Fuzzy Reasoning, IEEE , October1989, pp. 1712-1716 [9] Y-S Kim and K-S Hong, A Tracking algorithm for Autonomous Navigation of AGVs in a Container, The 30 Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, Busan, Korea, November 2-6, 2004, pp.401-406 [10] H-B. Zhang, K. Yuan, S-Q. Mei, Q-R. Zhou, Visual Navigation of an Automated Guided Vehicle based on Path Recognition, Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Machine Learning and Cybernetics, Shanghai, China, August 15-19, 2004, pp.3877-3881