Closed-loop velocity control for an AGV equipped with a modified Voith-Schneider-Drive

Today state-of-the-art movement of automated guided vehicles is mostly unidirectional which needs more space in curves and decreases the flexibility and mutability of such systems in warehouse or facilities. With this focus a new omnidirectional drive concept for Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV) was developed at the Fraunhofer IML. The concept of the Voith-Schneider ship drive is the control of the velocity and the position of an AGV. Mechanical parameters have a major impact on the directional stability. Because of these reasons a close loop control is a strong condition for precise velocity and position control. The rotional and translational velocity closed-loop control is exemplarily realized by 6 degrees of freedom MEMS IMU. Further focus of research was the optimization of maneuverability and energy consumption.