Design of material transportation system for tandem automated guided vehicle systems

A new design concept of materialtransportation system is proposed on the basis of tandem automated guided vehicle (AGV) systems. The first design stage is to find the one and only one optimal transfer point for each traffic zone. All in-process parts to be moved into and out of a zone must go through the specified transfer point and parts can be moved directly to their destinations. The second design stage is to link all transfer points as a 'transportation centre' by several bidirectional tracks. This design concept can simplify material transportation system and provides accurate estimation of traffic load in a zone.