For correct transfer of goods, automated guided vehicles must automatically find the correct position at the transfer station. Since the subsequent steps are often safety-relevant, the requirements of functional safety must be met at this point. This is ensured by the safePGV positioning system, which enables safe positioning and identification up to SIL 3/PL e with a single sensor.

During loading and unloading, mobile robots must dock correctly at a station to guarantee smooth transfer of the load carrier. Simple but robust signal transmission is required to control this process. With two thru-beam photoelectric sensors of type BB10, this task can be solved in a space-saving and cost-effective way. Two different transmission frequencies ensure interference-free signal transmission—even with surrounding metal structures.

During the transfer of load carriers, hazardous movements can occur at the docking station. To ensure both the safety of the operating personnel and consistent system availability, DAD15 optical data couplers are used. This robust, cost-effective solution provides safety verification of the correct vehicle position up to PL d.

RFID systems are the ideal choice for reliable identification of loads independent of environmental influences. Since automated guided vehicles often operate under harsh conditions, the RFID systems used must be able to withstand large thermal and mechanical loads. The ultra-rugged F61 RFID read/write device is perfect for this task. Its compact design makes it particularly easy to integrate into automated bots.

If there are various objects on a load carrier, it is difficult to correctly identify the products belonging to a transport order. The F190 RFID read/write device is designed to meet this challenge. It detects up to 40 tags in a single read operation using multitag detection. Due to the high transmission power of the read device, the RFID tags can be detected as soon as the vehicle approaches the load carrier, so there is no loading delay.

When transporting trolleys or racks, automated bots drive into a recess under the load carrier to lift it. Here, the PGV positioning system performs two tasks in one: A PGV read device mounted on the top of the vehicle identifies the load carrier with the aid of a Data Matrix tag. At the same time, the relative position of the vehicle is determined based on the orientation of the read device to the tag. This ensures precise alignment of the AGV and safe transport of the load carrier.

AGVs on which a collaborative robot with multi-axis arm is mounted are being used more and more frequently in production to feed the required components to the machines. The controller requires a variety of different information to reliably detect the objects and accurately determine the positions to be approached. For this application, the 2-D universal vision sensor VOS2000 offers a flexibly combinable vision tool set, including for position and shape detection, matching, and identification tasks.