Autonomous Mobile Robot for Transporting Goods in Warehouse and Production

The trend and growth of digitalization in the different industry sectors have increased the demand for automation technologies in warehouse and production operations. The most common and popular automation technologies used in warehouses and production operations are the autonomous mobile robot (AMR). AMR is a self-guided vehicle equipped with different sensors and a navigation system to enable them to navigate through the environment to transport goods with obstacle avoidance features. Compared to traditional methods that involve manual operation or a conveyor system in transporting goods, AMR offers a wide range of flexibility and scalability in the system in which the AMR can support various load sizes, can add different modules on AMR such as a tray, robotic arms, jacking module, and so on. AMR also provides flexibility in communicating with the existing system of an industry such as MES to manage the navigation of the AMR and digitalize the transport of the goods and ensure the traceability of the goods. The AMR in the market nowadays is being sold at a high cost which is unaffordable for certain SMEs to purchase while another type of autonomous vehicle such as an automated guided vehicle system (AGV) has a lower cost compared to the AMR, but it requires the installation of the physical marker in order for the AGV to navigate. Therefore, this paper is purposed to develop a low-cost autonomous mobile robot (AMR) that is suitable to be deployed in the industry to transport goods on the production floor and warehouse. The most important feature of the AMR is its navigation system. A wide variety of types of sensors are used by the company nowadays to develop autonomous vehicles, and each sensor has different working principles and pros and cons. Other than the sensor, navigation algorithms are also significant in determining the behavior, efficiency, and accuracy of the navigation. The navigation algorithm and the sensors work in pairs, and hence, the algorithm chosen needs to suit the sensor chosen and vice versa. The study also aims to study and compare the available options for the sensors and the navigation algorithms and choose the ones suitable for the development of the low-cost autonomous vehicle. This study covered the research methodology for developing a low-cost AMR which starts with the mechanical design of the AMR and electrical circuit construction, followed by the development of the navigation function using ROS Navigation Stack. The expected result is the completion of the development of a low-cost AMR prototype with a navigation function.