Abstract: | Decentralized control of an autonomous automated guided vehicle system (AGVS) used for material handling is expected to lead to high system flexibility and robustness. A complete control methodology for decentralized autonomous AGVS control was developed and implemented in a computer-integrated manufacturing environment. The methodology addresses all aspects of AGVS functionality: system management, navigation and load transfer. Hierarchical fuzzy behaviour-based control, a reactive navigation scheme, was expanded to multirobot control in semistructured environments by incorporating a priori path optimization and right-of-the-way determination. |