A driverless and free-ranging fork lift carrier

Todays automated guided vehicles (AGVS) have stucked in their technology development of the early '80s. The consequence is that most of the installations are not working cost effectively and the complete market is decreasing. In this paper an overview of the current situation in autonomous transport is given. To overcome the existing problems, the requirements and demands to the next generation of free-ranging vehicles are analysed. A technical concept for a modular motion control system is presented and a prototype realisation in form of a free-ranging fork lift carrier is described.