i
UNIVERSITI TEKNIKAL MALAYSIA MELAKA
DESIGN DEVELOPMENT OF LOAD CARRIER TYPE AGV
This report submitted in accordance with requirement of the Universiti Teknikal
Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) for the Bachelor Degree of Manufacturing Engineering
(Robotics & Automation) (Hons.)
by
YAP WAN LOONG
B050910283
880712055391
FACULTY OF MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING
2013
ii
ABSTRAK
Sistem pengendalian bahan telah diperkenalkan dengan luasnya kepada industri
pembuatan kerana keperluan fleksibiliti dan kualiti. Kenderaan berpandu automatik
akan memainkan peranan penting untuk mencapai keperluan ini kerana ketepatan
yang tinggi dan fungsi kebolehulangannya. Ia boleh menggantikan buruh manusia
bekerja untuk tempoh masa yang lama tanpa mengetahui keletihan. Projek ini akan
mencadangkan tentang bagaimana untuk memperbaiki reka bentuk pada mekanikal
untuk kenderaan berpandu automatik dan menilainya. Jadual kualiti pengaturan
fungsi telah digunakan untuk membuat keputusan kepada pemilihan reka bentuk.
Dengan keperluan dari pelanggan dan ujikaji kejuruteraan, reka bentuk yang sesuai
dan jenis kenderaan akan dipilih. Hasil dari jadual tersebut telah menunjukkan
bahawa kenderaan pembawa beban adalah pilihan yang sesuai untuk diteruskan
kekajian. Kemudian, projek ini akan memberi tumpuan pada kenderaan pembawa
beban sebagai jenis kenderaan baru yang sesuai untuk reka bentuk kenderaan
berpandu automatik kerana kelebihannya. Model trolley akan dibina dengan
menggunakan 3D reka bentuk perisian. Akhirnya, ia akan disimulasi dengan satu
simulasi yang bernama daya statik untuk menguji keadaan kekuatan and cara ubah
bentuk.
iii
ABSTRACT
Material handling system has been widely introduced to manufacturing industries
due to the requirement of flexibility and quality. An automated guided vehicle will
play an important role to achieve the requirement for the material handling system
because of the high accuracy and repeatability function. It can replace the human
labour working for a long time period without getting fatigue. This project is about
how to improve the mechanical design for AGV and evaluate it. Quality function
deployment has been used to decide the design selection. With the customer
requirement and engineering voice in QFD, the suitable design and type of AGV
will be selected. The result from QFD has showed that the unit load carriers are the
suitable choice to be continued develops. Then, this project is focused on using unit
load AGV carriers for the new type of AGV design due to the advantage of this type
of AGV. The model preparation of AGT is designed by using SolidWorks 3D
drawing software and performed simple static force simulation on it.
iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to acknowledge the following people for their support and
assistance with this project. I would like to extend my thankfulness to the most
precious persons in my life, my father and mother for all their moral support,
financial support and also to my friends for never ending reminding me to always be
honest and trustworthy. As my supervisor from University Technical Melaka
Malaysia (UTeM), Dr. Fairul Azni B. Jafar and CO. Supervisor, En. Mahasan B.
Mat Ali. I thank you for all the reprimand and guidance as it is very helpful for me
in completing my report project.
v
TABLE OF CONTENT
Abstrak i
Abstract ii
Acknowledgement iii
Table of Content iv
List of Tables vii
List of Figures viii
List Abbreviations xi
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background 1
1.2 Problem Statement 2
1.3 Objectives 2
1.4 Scope of the Project 3
1.5 Project Limitation 3
1.6 Report Structure 3
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Material Handling 5
2.2 Automated Guided Vehicle 6
2.2.1 AGV System 7
2.2.2 AGV Guidance Technique 7
2.2.3 AGV Addressing Mechanism 8
2.2.4 AGV Vehicles Types 8
2.2.4.1 Towing Vehicles 9
2.2.4.2 Pallet Trucks 11
2.2.4.3 Unit-load Carriers 14
2.3 Comparison between Types of AGV 17
2.4 AGV Drive and Steering Option 18
2.5 Existing Unit Load Carrier AGV in Industry 20
2.5.1 AGV-T-2500 Wire Guided Vehicle 21
vi
2.5.2 PLR-T-SB Rider Transport 22
2.6 Chapter Summary 23
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
3.1 Proposed Idea
3.1.1 Current Existing AGV 24
3.1.2 Company Trolley 26
3.1.3 The Reason for New Design and Improvement 28
3.2 The Theory of Design 29
3.3. Overall Method 30
3.3.1 Method Description 31
3.3.2 Product Planning by Quality Function Deployment 32
3.3.3 Design Process 33
3.3.4 Design Selection 35
3.3.5 Evaluation 35
3.4 Chapter Summary 36
CHAPTER 4: DISCUSSION AND RESULTS
4.1 Design Result
4.1.1 Concept Design Drawing 37
4.1.2 Actual Trolley Design 38
4.1.2.1 Design of 3 Wheels 38
4.1.2.2 Design of 4 Wheels 44
4.2 Weight Calculation and Torque Estimation
4.2.1 Weight and Torque Estimation 50
4.2.2 Rear Wheel Gear Suggestion 52
4.2.3 Front Wheel Gear Suggestion 53
4.3 SolidWorks Static Force Simulation
4.3.1 Step of Static Force Simulation 54
4.3.2 Fixed Geometry 56
4.3.3 Structure of Excess Deformation 58
4.3.4 Result of Stress 59
4.3.5 Result of Strain 61
vii
4.3.6 Result of Displacement 63
4.3.7 Top AGV Box Cover Simulation 65
4.4 Chapter Summary 67
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION
5.1 Conclusion 68
5.2 Future Study 69
REFERENCES 70
APPENDICES
A Gantt chart PSM 1
B Gantt chart PSM 2
C Questionnaire Paper Answer
viii
LIST OF TABLES 2.1 Comparison between types of AGV 17
2.2 AGV drive and steering option 18
3.1 Characteristics of good design versus bad design 29
3.2 Relationship matrix between customer requirement and
engineering characteristic 32
4.1 Result of load VS torque 51
ix
LIST OF FIGURES
2.1 (a) Example of towing vehicle 9
2.1 (b) Example of towing vehicle 10
2.2 (a) Example of pallet trucks 11
2.2 (b) Example of pallet trucks 12
2.2 (c) Example of pallet trucks 13
2.3 (a) Example of unit-load carriers 14
2.3 (b) Example of Unit-load carriers 15
2.4 AGV-T-2500 wire guided vehicle 21
2.5 PLR-T-SB rider transport 22
3.1 Current existing design picture 1 24
3.2 Current existing design picture 2 25
3.3 Front view of the trolley 26
3.4 3D view of the trolley 26
3.5 Trolley A 27
3.6 Trolley B 27
3.7 Prototype idea design 1 32
3.8 Prototype idea design 2 32
4.1 Concept design of 3 wheel trolley 37
4.2 Concept design of 4 wheel trolley 38
4.3 3D view of AGV trolley from top 39
4.4 3D view of AGV trolley from bottom 39
4.5 Front view of 3 wheel AGV trolley 40
4.6 Bottom view of 3 wheel AGV trolley 40
4.7 Side view of 3 wheel AGV trolley 41
4.8 3D view of AGV box 41
4.9 3D view of circuit board placement 42
4.10 AGV box content 42
4.11 Front view of AGV box 43
x
4.12 Side view of AGV box 43
4.13 3D view of 3 wheel AGV trolley frame 44
4.14 3D view of 4 wheel AGV trolley from top 45
4.15 3D view of 4 wheel AGV trolley from bottom 45
4.16 Front view of 4 wheels AGV 46
4.17 Bottom view of 4 wheels AGV 46
4.18 Side view of 4 wheels AGV 47
4.19 3D view of AGV box 47
4.20 3D view of AGV box content 48
4.21 Front view of AGV box 48
4.22 Side view of AGV box 49
4.23 3D view of 4 wheel AGV trolley frame 49
4.24 Graph of load VS torque 51
4.25 Worm gear 52
4.26 Bevel gear 53
4.27 Stainless steel property menu 55
4.28 Model meshing 55
4.29 Original frame fixed geometry 56
4.30 3 wheel AGV frame fixed geometry 56
4.31 4 wheel AGV frame fixed geometry 57
4.32 Prediction of excess deformation for original AGV trolley frame 58
4.33 Prediction of excess deformation for 3 wheel AGV trolley frame 58
4.34 Prediction of excess deformation for 4 wheel AGV trolley frame 59
4.35 Stress result of original AGV trolley frame 59
4.36 Stress result of 3 wheel AGV trolley frame 60
4.37 Stress result of 4 wheel AGV trolley frame 60
4.38 Strain result of original AGV trolley frame 61
4.39 Strain result of 3 wheel AGV trolley frame 61
4.40 Strain result of 4 wheel AGV trolley frame 62
4.41 Displacement result of original AGV trolley frame 63
4.42 Displacement result of 3 wheel AGV trolley frame 63
4.43 Displacement result of 4 wheel AGV trolley frame 64
4.44 Stress result of AGV top box cover 65
xi
4.45 Displacement result of AGV top box cover 65
4.46 Strain result of AGV top box cover 66
4.47 Prediction result of excess deformation 66
xii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
CAD - Computer Aided Design
UTeM - University Technical Malaysia Melaka
AGV - Automated Guided Vehicle
LGV - Laser guided vehicles
SGV - Self-guided vehicles
P&D - Pick-up and deposit
SCR - Silicon Controlled Rectifier
QFD - Quality Function Deployment
U.S.A - United State of American
JIT - Just In Time
AS/RS - Automated Storage/ Retrieval System
FM - Facility Management
DC - Direct Current
AGT - Automated Guided Trolley
FEA - Finite Element Analysis
1
CHAPTER 1INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
Nowadays material handling system has become important due to the requirement of
quality and quantity. Because of that, the creation of Automated Guided Vehicle
(AGV) has been introduced to the industries for the purpose of increase the product
handling speed and decrease the human labor cost. Based on the definition from
Wikipedia, it defines the AGV as a mobile robot that follows markers or wires in the
floor, or uses vision or lasers.
The first AGV was created by Berrett Electronics in 1953 (Wikipedia
foundation, 2012). This AGV is able to tow objects behind them in trailers to which
they can autonomously attach. The trailers can be used to transfer the material and
finished product. This is also the idea from the company to the UTeM. The first idea
for the trolley-towing AGV is under towing function. It was uses to tow the trolley
from one point to another point without any human intersection.
In a traditional company system, human labor is very important for the
productivity. But, the AGV can safely achieve this requirement with an intelligent
computer. AGV is easy to be control and able to communicate with other
autonomous vehicles to provide a seamless operation. In case to design an AGV, the
engineer designer requires considering trade-offs between product attributes in the
areas of cost, weight, manufacturability, quality, and performance. Difficult
challenge of determining how to arrive at the best overall design need to be faced,
making the right compromises, and not sacrificing in critical attributes like safety.
2
1.2 Problem Statement
The reason to create an Automated Guided Vehicle is mainly to solve the logistic
problem that often occurred in the workplaces and reduce the risks of personal injury.
It is widely uses in factories, offices, houses, hospitals and some other place that
cannot be noticed.
The AGV can perform many tasks with a higher accuracy and repeatability.
There are some works such as to tow a trolley from one place to another place by
repeatedly, etc. AGV is more efficient when compared to the human labor that will
simply get tired after working for a whole day. By using a suitable power and drive
system, it can carry and lifting a trolley far more than human workers can be. Robots
will not get tired and their movement is easy to be control at all times. Their
movement will be set up by the programming device to move around and do the job
like collecting and feeding materials.
Besides that, there is a lot of worker need to spend their energy and time to
tow the trolley from loading bay to the conveyor for transferring the seat frame. By
using AGV, it can avoid the worker from getting fatigue and the factories system
would be more systematic. AGV also able to repeatedly doing the same job without
any mistake that may be happen on human workers.
Based on the expectation, the environment of the factories need to be analyze
first before do the designing of a suitable AGV towing robot to prevent any unknown
error. This is the main fact to design and improve the robot.
1.3 Objectives
The objectives of this project:
To design the model preparation of the AGT prototype using computer
software
To perform analysis based on the design automated guided trolley
3
1.4 Scope of the Project
The first design model is a four-wheeled mobile robot that has the ability to follow
line on floor. There are four-wheels including two driving wheels controlled by the
motor and two free wheel in front which are for steering purpose. With four wheels,
the wheels are always in contact with the surface because there is a higher driving
force to tow the trolley. In this case, the final decision is to modify the simple trolley
prototype to operate in AGV function. The model of this idea is same type as the unit
load AGV carries. By using SolidWorks CAD software, it can design and show the
AGV model is solid state drawing. The work in this project is focusing more on the
development on the mechanical design of the AGV.
1.5 Project Limitation
The main problem to be considered is how to modify the trolley becomes a
unit load carriers to add in the extra equipment without increase the load. It is also
important to know the actual working environment either the factory have enough
area to let the robot operated or not.
1.6 Report Structure
Chapter one is discussing about the introduction of the report that first start with
background of the AGV, problem statement, objectives, scope of the project, project
limitation.
Chapter two is start with literature review. This chapter have describe the material
handling system, Automated guided vehicle, AGV system, guidance system,
addressing mechanism, type of vehicle, comparison between three type of AGV and
current existing AGV in industry.
Chapter three is related to methodology of project. It describes the current design of
AGV, type of company trolley, the reason for new design, design concept and overall
method.
4
Chapter four is result and discussion for the project. It shows the result of concept
drawing and actual drawing of AGT. Lastly, it shows the result from the static force
simulation that related to stress, strain and displacement.
Chapter five is the conclusion of the project. It conclude the research and finding
from this project. It also includes future study suggestion.
5
CHAPTER 2LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Material Handling
Material handling is loading, moving and unloading of material. To do it safely and
economically, different types of tackles, gadgets and equipment are used when the
materials handling is referred to as mechanical handling systems. A definition from
Texas A&M Industrial Engineering, material handling uses the right method to
provide the right amount of the right material at the right place, at the right time, in
the right sequence, in the right position, in the right condition, and at the right cost.
In any industry, no matter it is big or small, involving manufacturing or
construction type work, materials have to be handle as raw materials intermediate
goods or finished products from the point of receipt and storage of raw materials,
through production processes and up to finished goods storage and dispatch points.
Even the material handling did not add value to the product and not a
production cost. It cost a lot of money for the company, so it should be eliminated or
at least reduced as much as possible. Another definition from American Materials
Handling Society, material handling is the art and science involving the moving,
packaging and storing of substance in any form. (New Age International,
http://www.newagepublishers.com/samplechapter/001455.pdf)
Based on that, this means that material handling is very important and should
be concerned about it. The foremost importance of materials handling is that it helps
productivity and increase the profitability of an industry. A well design material
handling system can provide high efficiency of a production system by ensuring the
right quantity of materials delivered at the right place at the right time most
6
economically. Besides that, it can cut down the labor cost and reduce the damage of
materials during storage and movement.
AGV can achieves those goals and bring the biggest profit to the industries
that are widely using it.
2.2 Automated Guided Vehicle
Automated guided vehicle normally explained as a robot with material handling
system that uses independently operated, self-propelled vehicles guide along defined
pathways. An AGV can also be called a laser guided vehicles (LGV) or self-guided
vehicles (SGV). AGV can carry loads or tow objects behind them in trailers. The
trailers can be used to move raw materials or finished product. AGV are employed in
nearly every industry, including paper, metals, newspaper and general manufacturing.
AGV suitable used on when there is high transferring requirement with a stable
repeatable movement and without human labor decision making (Arvin, Sooraj,
Ankitha, Alka, Vishnu, 2011).
AGV has been installed with a driverless computer controlled that is
programmed to transport materials through desirable routine in a certain area like
factories and warehouse. The first AGV was developed by Barrett Electronics,
U.S.A., in the early 1950s and installed at Mercury Motor Freight in 1954. At the
start, it poor efficiency was been accepted by the manufacturing industry because
ofits limited controller and cannot be reprogrammable. Because of this, a lot of
researchers are very interested to develop and improve it flexibility and efficiency.
The performance of AGV can affect the materials handling system that directly
related to the whole factory operation. (Wikipedia foundation, 2012)
Nowadays, AGV have been played an important role in industry because it
has become one of the fastest drowning classes of equipment in the materials
handling industry (H. Huzairi, 2009). AGV can be used from the process start until
the end such as deliver the raw material from all the way through the loading bay and
unloading it.
Over the year the technology has become more sophisticated and today automated
vehicles are mainly lasering navigated (LGV). In an automated process, LGV are
7
programmed to communicate with other robots to ensure product is moved smoothly
through the warehouse, whether it is stored for future use or send directly to shipping
areas. A typical AGV consists of the frame, batteries, electrical system, drive unit,
steering, precision stop unit, on-board controller, communication unit, safety system,
and work platform. (Arvin, Sooraj, Ankitha, Alka, Vishnu, 2011).
2.2.1 AGV System
According to statistic in 1989, AGV systems installation with respect to their
application types were profiled as following: JIT delivery systems (56%), FM
transfer system (13%), storage load transfer, non-AR/RS (12%), AS/RS interface
(8%), progressive assembly (7%), mini-load AS/RS interface (1%), and others (3%).
Other application of AGV in non-manufacturing environment such as delivering mail,
messages, and package in office and delivering laundry in hospitals. AGV can be
used in two different ways. The first approach is attach a workpiece to the AGV
having all manufacturing processes done while the AGV carries the workpiece from
station to station. In this approach, the AGV is freed only after all the processes for
the workpieces are completed. The second approach is to use vehicles only for
moving the workpieces from one station to another. Vehicles are assigned to the
workpieces only for a single trip. In the former, number of vehicles required is
significantly greater than in a normal AGV system (Bulent CELINE, 2003).
2.2.2 AGV Guidance Technique
AGV guidance system can be classified as three main types:
Wire guide path
Optical guide path
Off-wire guidance
In the wire guide path technique, wires with varying frequencies are buried in the
floor. AGV select a path at a control point according to the assigned frequency. In
the optical guide path techniques, an AGV focuses a beam of light on a reflective
8
tape or a painted strip and follows the path by measuring the amplitude of the
reflected light. The disadvantage of the wire guide path and optical guide path have
caused the development of off-wire guidance techniques such as laser triangulation,
floor-grid referencing, and gyroscopic guidance. The advantage of these techniques
that, there is no need for floor cutting or painting, and the guide path is easily
modified. (Wikipedia foundation, 2012)
2.2.3 AGV Addressing Mechanism
The system in AGV can be grouped into two types. There is direct or indirect address
system. In direct system, the AGV is moving like the taxi because the vehicle is
allowed to visit any station in the same system. By considering the current status of
the system, the planning function will routes vehicle from its current location to its
destination. This mean the routes of vehicle are not determined in advanced. The
vehicles must first be assigned to tasks since vehicles are not planning to serve any
particular station. This situation has make the planning function become complicated
since the location of the vehicle is unknown and only change when the system
changes.
For the indirect address system, the vehicles will stop at each station by a
fixed sequence which is like a bus system. The routes are predetermined as part of
the system design and not one of the controller planning function. Compare to the
direct address system, the dispatching in this system is straightforward. As the route
of the vehicle is predetermined, it will pick up and drop off loads when it reach each
station in its routes (Nurulhuda, 2006).
2.2.4 AGV Vehicles Types
Types of AGV can be categorized as:
Towing vehicles
Pallet trucks
Unit-load carries
9
2.2.4.1 Towing Vehicle
Figure 2.1: (a) Example of towing vehicle
10
Figure 2.1: (b) Example of towing vehicle
11
Towing vehicles pull a series of trailers that are attached to the vehicles. The trailers
are attached to and detached from the vehicles manually at the stations. The vehicle
does not have lofting capabilities nor a transfer mechanism. It can be used for any
type of load (Bulent CELINE, 2003). It will be earliest variety to be introduced in the
industry. It has a design similar to standard tow tractors. Interface between the AGV
and load is made through a coupling device. Pick-up and deposit (P&D) points can
be designated parking location on the floor or a staged location adjacent to a P&D
stand for automated transfer. Different types of loading equipment used for loading
and unloading the trailer include an AGV-pulled train, hand pallet truck, cranes,
manual labour, shuttle transfer and others (David Dziwis, St. Onge Company, 2005).
2.2.4.2 Pallet Truck
Figure 2.2: (a) Example of pallet truck
12
Figure 2.2: (b) Example of pallet truck
