With the widespread application of Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) in industrial production, ensuring safe coordination between AGVs and personnel has become an urgent issue. This article delves into the research on collision avoidance algorithms for AGVs and personnel safety, as well as introducing relevant technologies and methods.
1. Introduction
In recent years, Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) have been widely adopted in industrial production for their ability to improve production and transportation efficiency while reducing labor intensity. However, when AGVs work in environments shared with personnel, ensuring safety coordination is crucial to avoid potential collisions and accidents. Designing effective collision avoidance algorithms has become a significant topic in the field of AGV research.
2. Challenges of AGV and Personnel Safety Coordination
1. Dynamic and Complex Environments: Industrial production sites are often dynamic and complex, with spatial arrangements and paths between personnel and AGVs subject to frequent changes. Accurately perceiving and predicting personnel behavior in rapidly changing environments presents a challenge.
2. Real-time Requirements: Collision avoidance algorithms must be real-time capable, capable of reacting quickly and taking action promptly. Even slight delays in high-speed interactions between AGVs and personnel can lead to severe consequences.
3. System Complexity: AGV and personnel safety coordination involve multiple aspects, including sensors, communication, and control algorithms. Designing an integrated, efficient, and real-time capable system is a challenge.
3. Research on Collision Avoidance Algorithms for AGV and Personnel Safety Coordination
1. Sensor Technology: Utilizing various types of sensors, such as LiDAR, cameras, infrared sensors, etc., to perceive the surrounding environment and gather information about personnel’s positions and movements.
2. Prediction and Planning: Based on the data collected by sensors, leveraging machine learning and deep learning technologies to predict personnel behavior and paths, and adopting corresponding planning strategies to avoid collisions.
3. Sensitivity and Priority: Setting different sensitivities and priorities for various obstacles, such as personnel and other objects. In the decision-making process, multiple factors are considered to balance safety and production efficiency between AGVs and personnel.
4. Real-time Communication and Cooperative Control: Implementing real-time communication technologies, such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, to facilitate information exchange and cooperative control between AGVs and personnel. Timely information exchange enhances safety perception and response capabilities for both parties.
4. Application Cases and Outlook
1. Automotive Manufacturing Industry: AGVs commonly work together with workers in automotive manufacturing workshops. By introducing collision avoidance algorithms, safe coordination between AGVs and workers can be ensured, thus enhancing production efficiency.
2. Logistics and Warehousing Industry: The application of AGVs in large warehouses can significantly improve automation and transportation efficiency.
Future research directions may explore the following aspects:
a) Reinforcement Learning Algorithms: Applying reinforcement learning algorithms to collision avoidance, enabling AGVs to learn optimal behavior strategies through interactions with the environment. This algorithm continuously adjusts AGV trajectories based on real-time feedback, achieving intelligent collision avoidance.
b) Multi-Modal Fusion Technology: Combining data from multiple sensors, such as vision, sound, radar, etc., for multi-modal fusion processing to enhance perception capabilities of the environment and personnel behavior. The fusion of information from various sensors can improve personnel detection and tracking, reducing false positives and missed detections.
c) Prediction of Personnel Behavior: Utilizing machine learning and statistical analysis methods to model and predict personnel behavior based on historical data. Accurate prediction of personnel behavior allows for appropriate planning in advance, avoiding collisions with personnel.
d) Visual Safety Cues: Real-time display of AGV’s operational status and path prediction results to personnel by installing screens or projection devices on AGVs. Such visual safety cues increase personnel awareness of AGVs, reducing the occurrence of accidents.
e) Application of IoT Technology: Leveraging IoT technology to establish real-time connections between AGVs and surrounding devices and systems for comprehensive monitoring and scheduling of AGVs and personnel. By connecting multiple AGVs, sensors, and monitoring devices, an integrated system can be established to achieve higher-level safety control and cooperative operations.
Research on collision avoidance algorithms for AGV and personnel safety coordination is a critical field that requires comprehensive consideration of sensor technology, prediction, planning, communication, and cooperative control. Through continuous research and innovation, we can continuously improve the safety coordination capability between AGVs and personnel, ensuring dual safety for production and personnel.
