To ensure your mobile robotics rollout is successful and maximizes ROI from the off, it is crucial to plan this deployment carefully, working closely with your integrator.
By following established best practice your combined teams can mitigate risk, minimize the number of potential issues, and ensure minimal production downtime - not to mention making sure staff feel good about the arrival of your AGV/AMR systems on-site.
3 phases of AGV integration
The AGV integration process can be broken down most simply into three key phases:
1. Pre-commissioning
This involves planning and, ideally, also simulating your mobile robotics project with the help of your AGV integrator (this may be your vehicle supplier or a third-party system integrator).
2. Commissioning
This phase covers the arrival and commissioning (the on-site installation) of your AGVs or AMRs, including the programming of their routes and actions, the configuration of your fleet manager software, and any integration with existing on-site software and equipment that is required.
3. Operation & optimization
Once your AGVs/AMRs are installed and operational, your team will want to view your robots’ operations in real time, as well as have access to detailed reporting and analytics in order to continually optimize their usage.
Let’s examine these phases in detail:
1. Pre-commissioning
This first stage of AGV integration is all about planning, in great detail, the future usage and staged roll-out of your vehicles. If the navigation software that is used to program your vehicles also includes project simulation functionality, this can also be useful to incorporate into the latter stage of your planning.
i) Project planning
Deep, careful planning of your AGV integration is crucial to the eventual performance of your installation. This planning is likely to be a multi-week, or more likely multi-month process, during which you and your integrator will examine your current operation and consider how your existing material handling processes might best be improved with mobile robots.
Before starting to work with any AGV supplier, it pays to be aware of the different topics you will need to dig into with them. This list covers the key subjects you should consider:
- Process identification: You will need to assess firstly which internal transport processes exist (the ‘who does what already’ can be full of surprises), and secondly, which of these processes can most benefit from automation with AGVs/AMRs. Great candidates for automation are the most dull, repetitive, and/or dangerous transport processes, in part because these jobs are often the most difficult to hire and retain staff for. Read Which processes to automate first.
- Process standardization: What some first-time AGV adopters sometimes miss is that transport processes will often need to be re-thought and standardized before they can truly suit automation. It pays to do this work thoroughly – analyzing and simplifying as you go – as automation projects can become overly complex and costly if too much variability exists within your system.
- Site analysis: It is important to consider not only an AGV’s most suitable and efficient routes, but also any on-site limitations that might affect your mobile robot operations. These could be potentially difficult crossings, where manual vehicles and people are moving across a vehicle’s lanes. They could be very constrained areas where turning on the spot or omnidirectional vehicle movement might be required. And there may be other environmental considerations such as wet, slippy or low-quality flooring, extreme temperatures, sharp inclines etc.
- Safety analysis: When analyzing your site, consider to what degree your AGVs will need to interact with humans or other vehicles. Will specific safety zones be required? What about separate lanes? Will you need traffic lights setting up at intersections? And what staff training will be required so that workers know how to interact with your new robots? You will want to learn about safety certifications too. For example, in Europe, your vehicles should be CE certified, meaning they comply with ISO3691-4. If you plan to deploy many AGVs across different plants, it might be a good idea to also develop internal standards guides that are specific to the operations of your company, for an efficient, consistent rollout.
- Payload analysis: What types of pallets/materials are used or required? What impact will this have on vehicle choice and configuration? And how will AGVs be loaded/unloaded? And another, very specific, question it is useful to ask: does the navigation system that drives your preferred vehicles take into account the size of a payload when choosing their virtual paths, setting their speed, and defining their safety fields? This kind of built-in, intelligent flexibility will be a great help in avoiding deadlocks and potential damage.
- Number of vehicles calculation: The number of AGVs required on-site will obviously have a huge impact on the cost and therefore the feasibility of your project. Calculating the number of vehicles considers several factors, such as the frequency and size of your transports, the number of shifts worked, the maximum speeds of your vehicles, required redundancy, and so on. Running a simulation – see further below - can help your integrator to further fine-tune these calculations (note: using the simulation of the vehicle’s navigation or fleet manager supplier will simulate reality more precisely than using a generic 3D simulation product).
- Software integration: A key question is, how will your vehicles receive their tasks? For example, will an AGV mission be generated by a staff member pushing (or clicking) a button, or will missions be called automatically via sensor inputs (such as activating a presence detector on an end-of-line conveyor)? This integration step typically involves determining how the vehicles’ fleet management software will integrate with your company’s existing WMS, MES, or ERP system, which can require custom development or the adoption of more specific middleware.
- Equipment interfacing: In addition to the software above, which physical machinery will vehicles need to interact with – such as palletizers, automatic doors, conveyors etc. - and which communication protocols will be employed (OPC UA, Modbus etc.)? Your integrator can help you think through and program all the necessary handshakes between these machines and your AGV fleet manager.
- Staff liaison: If you communicate transparently about your AGV project with your team, and involve relevant staff early, this should maximize acceptance of this technology, helping you avoid potential frustration later on. Extra tip: ‘personalizing’ your robots by adding faces and/or giving them names can also boost acceptance and help avoid vandalism.
ii) Simulation
Simulation involves using your AGV’s fleet management software to run virtual vehicles in your pre-configured software project. This can be a great way of spotting issues early and ironing out niggles prior to the on-site commissioning of your robots, ensuring your automation project runs as seamlessly as possible from day one. Here's why:
- Quality assurance: Simulation allows your integrator to check everything from individual AGV missions to full-scale fleet operations featuring multiple vehicles picking and dropping, charging, devices and more.
- No. of vehicles: Simulation can also help your vehicle supplier or third-party integrator estimate more precisely how many vehicles you will require.
- Optimization: Numerous other parameters can be pre-tested and then optimized, such as: the number of missions required, the optimal charging strategy, the most efficient vehicle speeds, traffic management, and more.
- Example: In the case of ANT driven vehicles, simulations are run using BlueBotics' ANT server fleet manager. The map of your site used is created by either importing a CAD file or pre-mapping your site with a single ANT driven vehicle - e.g., your first AGV or AMR - using ANT lab configuration software.
iii) Factory Acceptance Test (FAT)
Typically, a FAT will be completed towards the end of a project’s planning and simulation phase. This test guarantees that a vehicle’s core functions meet the requirements of your application, covering topics like vehicle speed, safety systems, correct load handling, etc. Often FATs will be run, with vehicles and real-life sample payloads (pallet/ICB), at the vehicle integrator’s site, so as not to impact your operation by causing unnecessary downtime.
2. Commissioning
The AGV commissioning process spans several standard steps. These are similar for every new installation (however, if adding vehicles later, your integrator will probably exclude the mapping step - since your site map will already exist). Let's explore them...
- Vehicle calibration: When an AGV or AMR arrives on-site, calibration is necessary to ensure its onboard navigation system properly understands the specific parameters of the vehicle, and to check none of the vehicle’s components – such as its LiDAR scanners – have not been nudged out of alignment during shipping. A well-calibrated vehicle is much less likely to experience issues later on, whereas badly calibrated vehicles may not navigate accurately (and the reason for this may not be immediately clear, leading to frustrating troubleshooting)
- Mapping (if not carried out during the Simulation phase): Once your vehicle has been calibrated, your integrator will create the map of your site it will use to get around. This process can differ depending on the vehicle’s navigation system. In the case of ANT driven vehicles for example, this map is created by manually driving the vehicle around the area in which it will operate. In the case of an automated forklift, this will involve driving this hybrid vehicle as normal using its steering wheel. By contrast, in the case of a forked AGV or AMR (without a manual drive option), the robot is typically controlled using a wired joystick. Read -> How ANT driven AGVs/AMRs are installed.
- Programming routes and actions: Now your vehicles have a map to drive around, your integrator can program their routes— the virtual paths they will follow around your site — which you have planned together, using the same configuration software as used to map the site. Then, within these routes, actions can be programmed. Actions are the tasks that will take place at specific points, such as pick/drop locations, and might include things like slowing down, raising a machine’s forks etc.
- Optional installation of GNSS antenna for outdoor AGV operations: in the specific case of ANT driven vehicles, select models can operate outdoors thanks to BlueBotics’ ANT everywhere product extension. To configure this technology, the integrator installs a GNSS base station on the roof of one of a site’s buildings – enabling highly precise outdoor operation, even in large open areas.
- Small-scale test: Once the map, routes, and actions (your AGV project) are created, it is common to first run a small-scale test, for example using just one AGV, working with your integrator to fix any issues and make any further optimizations required.
- Extended test: Once an initial small scale-test has been run successfully, the next step is to put your full fleet of AGVs into production, and to assess the performance of this project over several weeks.
- Site Acceptance Test (SAT): Once your AGV/AMR integration is working exactly in line with your company’s technical requirements, you can look to run a full SAT and validate the installation for long-term use.
- Staff training: For ensure the effective long-term performance of your AGV/AMR operation, it is essential to fully train any staff who might interact with your automated vehicles. This will ensure their safe operation, improve acceptance, and optimize efficiency by avoiding a vehicle’s routes becoming blocked.
3. Operation & optimization
Once your AGVs have been deployed, it is crucial to monitor the ongoing performance of the system — from maintaining the vehicles themselves to optimizing their software project, tweaking and adding further routes, actions, and missions as required. This ongoing work typically covers the following tasks:
- Real-time monitoring and system troubleshooting: This is typically possible using the web interface of your AGV producer’s fleet manager software (for example, ANT server), or via third-party solutions such as SCADA systems, which can be integrated with the fleet manager.
- Usage tracking & statistics: This fleet manager functionality is essential to properly assess system performance, identify recurring errors, troubleshoot the system, and further brainstorm new optimization strategies to test.
- Project modification: As sites expand and automation programs evolve, it is often necessary to add new vehicle routes and to add or adjust existing pick/drop locations. This work is typically carried out by the integrator, using the system’s configuration software, however many large manufacturers with expert technical teams are increasingly being trained to make such updates themselves.
- Maintenance: Depending on the type of AGV or AMR you choose, your supplier will propose set maintenance schedules for different components, most often parts such as wheels and sensors.
- Fleet scale-up: How might you expand your automated program in future? Are there identical internal logistics processes that your team can automate at sister sites? Or will you look to automate new, different processes in your existing plant? Depending on the type of project expansion you prefer – and the geographic locations of your company’s sites - different models and brands of vehicle may be required. In this case, it is highly beneficial to choose vehicles that can be managed via one, single multi-brand fleet management platform. This will allow you to roll-out and manage of multiple AGV/AMR brands in a seamless, unified way, drastically reducing the cost, risk and learning curve required versus using a different fleet manager per vehicle brand.
Let’s get your automation project moving
Is your company currently planning its AGV/AMR program? Do you have questions about which vehicles might suit your needs, how these should be integrated, or how fleet management works?
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