Focus on AGV industry for 17 years
Focus on AGV industry for 17 years
With the arrival of the new industrial era, the demand for intelligent logistics handling by intelligent factories, unmanned workshops, and manufacturing enterprises is increasing continuously. By using mobile robots (AGVs), enterprises can realize unmanned and intelligent handling. Compared with traditional manual handling, it can significantly improve the overall operational efficiency of the factory.
AGV, also known as "automatic guided vehicles", is widely used in the transfer of materials or finished products between production lines and warehouses. At the same time, AGVs have the function of cross-floor handling to meet the demand of material transportation in multi-floor and multi-area. The cross-floor handling technology of AGV independently researched and developed by CASUN Intelligent can make the signal interaction between AGV and the elevator or electronic door, and automatically complete the floor transfer and regional transfer of AGV in and out of the elevator and electronic door, which effectively solves the problem of multi-floor and multi-area material handling of various enterprises.
Picture: CASUN Intelligent AGV series products
In order to reduce the number of elevator round-trips, improve the efficiency of the elevator, and meet the requirements of the fast tempo operation scene, CASUN Intelligent has developed a set of the elevator can enter and exit two or more automated guided vehicle China at the same time, and has been promoted and applied in many industries, reaching the industry-leading level.
Picture: AGV cross-floor handling scenarios are diverse. The picture shows cross-floor handling cases of AGV entering and leaving elevators with different navigation modes (Note: elevators can enter 2 or more AGVs at one time)
Hardware requirements for AGV and elevator butt joint.
1. The control box of the elevator is equipped with a wireless butt joint system provided by CASUN Intelligent；
2. The signal interaction between the wireless butt joint system and the elevator controller is carried out according to the communication protocol (CASUN Intelligent has formulated the AGV and elevator communication standard protocol with several well-known elevator brand manufacturers respectively)
3. When the AGV interacts with the elevator signal, the wireless butt joint system will send the wireless signal sent by the AGV to the elevator controller. At the same time, the wireless butt joint system will collect the floor signal and the elevator status signal of the elevator controller, and then send the wireless signal to the AGV to realize the signal interaction between the AGV and the elevator.
4. When the AGV is connected with the elevator, the AGV sends out the following signals: the elevator floor signal, open the door signal, close the door signal; The wireless butt joint system collects the signal sent by the elevator controller include: the elevator floor signal, the flat floor signal, the opening, and closing completion signal.
Process No. | AGV Actuating Signal | Process and function description | Elevator action signal |
1 | AGV run to the elevator entrance | ||
2 | AGV Send up/down signal | AGV Send a request to the elevator to enter the elevator signal | |
3 | When the elevator receives the up/down signal, it will judge whether there is a trolley in the elevator or not, if not the elevator will move to the designated floor | Elevator signal to 1/2 floor | |
4 | When the elevator arrives at the designated floor, after the door is in place, the signal is sent to the AGV | The elevator sends a signal to open the door | |
5 | Send close door signal | The AGV reaches the stop point in the elevator, outputs the signal to the elevator, and notifies the elevator to close the door | |
6 | Elevator inspection AGV in place, elevator closed | ||
7 | After the elevator closes in place, the AGV will be sent to the designated floor automatically | ||
8 | The elevator will open the door after sending the AGV to the designated floor, and inform the AGV to release it when the door is completely opened | Send floor signal and floor opening in place signal | |
9 | Send close door signal | The AGV will release the elevator after receiving the floor signal and open the door in place signal and notify the elevator to close the door after exiting the elevator completely |
When the AGV and elevator butt joint technology was still not perfect, enterprises rarely consider introducing the AGV cross-floor handling project. Usually choose to use AGV to pull the skip car to the elevator, the personnel, and skip cargo into the elevator together, after reaching the designated floor, the personnel will pull the skip car to the end. In this way, the material is moved in conjunction with the AGV. This is not only a waste of manpower but also due to the uncontrollable opening and closing time in the process of getting in and out of the elevator, which is prone to safety accidents such as clipping and crashes.
After the AGV and elevator butt, joint technology is mature, enterprises pay more attention to the stability and safety of the AGV and elevator docking, such as signal loss or signal sending and receiving errors and omits, resulting in the AGV and elevator butt joint can’t work normally. Through technical breakthroughs, CASUN Intelligent has successfully solved the industry pain points such as signal drop-off, signal loss, and signal malfunction with a small probability when the AGV is connected with the elevator. And together with the elevator manufacturer to develop the communication protocol between AGV and the elevator, to achieve closed-loop control, to ensure 100% normal communication docking.
On the premise of a stable and reliable connection between the AGV and the elevator, the customer proposed that the elevator operation efficiency should be improved to reduce unnecessary waiting. In this regard, AGV manufacturers need to solve the difficulty of two or more AGVs entering and leaving the elevator at the same time. In addition, when the use frequency of the elevator increases, there will be multiple AGVs waiting in line at the elevator. In view of the above requirements, CASUN Intelligent uses the upper computer system to schedule and control AGVs and combines the autonomous communication technology between AGVs to successfully solve the above problems. To achieve a number of AGVs in and out of the elevator in a reasonable and orderly way, to avoid the congestion phenomenon at the elevator so that the logistics and transportation are carried out smoothly and orderly.
Moving across floors from the warehouse to the workshop and from the workshop to the warehouse does not fully reflect the operational advantages of AGV. Through the AGVS system and MES or WMS system butt joint and integration, AGVS system with MES/WMS and other system information management platforms, can efficiently, accurately, and flexibly complete the logistics handling tasks, improve the flexibility of production and competitiveness of enterprises.
ABOUT CASUN
Shenzhen Casun Intelligent Robot Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "CASUN Intelligent"), founded in 2007, is a NEEQ listed enterprise with AGV mobile robot as the core product (stock code: 834863). CASUN has offices, subsidiaries in many places of the country, and set up an office in Germany. After years of rapid development, now it has grown into a well-known enterprise in the domestic AGV mobile robot industry with innovation and R&D ability.
CASUN Intelligent adheres to the self-ownership of core technologies and independent research and development. At present, it has nearly 100 patents and software Copyrights, including nearly 10 invention patents. CASUN Intelligent has been awarded the "National High-tech Enterprise"; ISO9001 system certification, the European Union "CE certification"; It has been selected as one of the "Top Ten Robotics Enterprises in Shenzhen 2020", "Guangdong Famous and Excellent Product Enterprise", "Shenzhen Municipal Government Key Support Enterprise", "Guangdong Provincial Robot Association Vice-Chairman Unit" and other honorary qualifications. Up to now, CASUN Intelligent has designed and provided more than 2,000 AGV system solutions for customers and produced more than 15,000 sets of AGV products of various types, which have been applied to various large enterprises.
The trend of intelligent manufacturing is inevitable. In the future, more and more enterprises and factories will put AGV into use. An AGV enterprise with the automation integration capability of the whole plant can provide the most advantageous logistics solutions. CASUN Intelligent is committed to providing more accurate and stable logistics information and big data services for manufacturing enterprises all over the world to fully step into the "Industry 4.0 Era". CASUN Intelligent is creating the miracle of the robot industry in the best state.
