INTRODUCTION

In industrial environment, the most important aspect of logistics system is handling

the material flow. Although there are high throughput rate steady materials handling
technologies such as roller and chain conveyors, the majority of industrial application still
rely on common lifting or handling trucks as transportation system. The main reason of this
problem is the cost is less but this in turn with less flexibility regarding integration in an
existing or changing environment.
Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) has been operating efficiently in various industries
for decades. This technology have successfully used in deliberately structuring the
environment and adapting processes to automation. The main reason of using AGV is
improve material handling efficiency thus reduce cost and increase profitability.

Figure 1: Example of Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV)

Automation in manufacturing field had reach a whole new level with the introduction
and advancement of AGV. AGV itself is consider as part of automation as it can operate with
or without human control. It is used in production, logistic, warehouse and distribution
environment. It help human to do work that are difficult and unable to be done by human
alone. It bring a lot of benefit in terms of economy, social and also the environment.
Furthermore, AGV have bring sustainability to this modern era. Sustainability defined as the
ability to continue a defined behaviour indefinitely. Sustainability can be divided into three
categories which are environmental sustainability, economic sustainability and social
sustainability.

AUTOMATION IN AGV
In the extending demand of industrial trucks by means of automation technology
result in the increasing reliability and reduced operating costs. The solution of this problem is
solved by new technology called Automated Guide Vehicle (AGV) System where it are
capable of preforming transportation tasks fully automated. The first AGV system was built
and introduced in 1953 by Barrett. It was a modified towing tractor that was used to pull and
follow an overhead wire in a grocery warehouse. Application can be found throughout all
industrial branches, from automotive field, printing and pharmaceutical sectors over metal
and food processing to aerospace and port facilities.
The first big development for the AGV industry was the introduction of a unit load
vehicle in the middle of 1970s. AGV gained widespread acceptance in material handling
marketplace because of their ability to serve as a work platform, transportation device, and a
link in the control and information system for the industries. By now AGV system have
improved in various technical advances ranging from actuators and energy supplies to
entirely new sensor concept. This concept will determine each object position and broadcast
it to other vehicle in order to forewarn drivers or central navigation system to avoid collision
at an early time with operator interruption.
AGV consist of four main building block: a travel route, control system, vehicle and
power supply. The material flow is simply define by the travel route. The control system is
ensure the smoothest of flow of vehicle, materials and data in the process. The driverless
industrial trucks are the vehicles for AGV. It come with various shapes, sizes and can be
fitted with any type of mechanical handling device. AGV are goods transporters, and can
even act as mobile work benches or assembly platforms. They are battery-electric trucks,
available with the widest range of battery and power system. This guarantee maximum
flexibility and mobility around the clock.
The transportation task of AGV requires efficient and intelligent routing. Technology
used such as static routing, laser navigation flexible path, embedded magnetic and radio
transponder are the main navigation and communication between AGVs and AGVs with
human. This can help to compute the routing aspect in a very short time. Usually this system
are also capable of handling priorities and time schedules.

AGV are power by inductive power transfer. This technology transfers electrical
power between two circuits through a shared magnetic field. The primary circuit is a
conductor embedded in the ground whereas the secondary circuit is pickup attached to the
vehicle lower surface. By energizing the conductor a magnetic field is generated inducing a
current in an indicator inside the vehicle. There are two basic principle which are continuous
power supply and on-board battery. Through the advancement of technology, the power
supply are transfer to AGV by wireless charging thus there is no need to concern about the
resupply of power. Even the work of resupplying energy is also fully automated.
The increasing interest in AGV is reflected in the sales figures which reached a new
peak in 2006. Changes are keeping going in the AGV system to make it the most reliable and
conventional system in the future industries.

Figure 2: Basic components in AGV

SUSTAINABILITY OF AGV
Sustainability is defined as the ability to continue a defined behaviour indefinitely. In
this project, we going to explain the sustainability of AGV using the principle of The Three
Pillars of Sustainability. This principle stated that for the complete sustainability problem to

be solved all three pillars of sustainability must be sustainable.

[1]

Environmental, economic

and social are the three pillars of sustainability.

Environmental Sustainability
Environmental sustainability is the ability to maintain rates of renewable resource
harvest, pollution creation and non-renewable resource depletion that can be continued
indefinitely. [2]
In 2011, fossil fuel use created 33.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions
worldwide. Transporting goods and people around the world produced 22% of fossil fuel
related carbon dioxide emissions. AGV has reduced significant amount of emission from
heavy duty vehicle that used in industry. In the pass, heavy industry uses overhead cranes and
huge power vehicle to move or transfer the products. For example, the container terminals
apply Tractor-Trailer (TT), Multi-Trailer System (MTS), Shuttle Carrier (ShC) and
Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) for internal transportation for the connection between
waterside, landside and RTG or RMG stacking concepts. The diesel-mechanically driven TTs,
MTs and ShCs respectively take about 10, 14 and 22 litter of fuel per operating hour. With
AGV, the fuel consumption is reduced to 7 litter per operating hour. This mean less fuel is
used to complete the transportation task. Less fuel consumption also reduced the amount of
being emitted. Moreover, there are AGVs powered by diesel-electricity which further
reduced the fuel consumption. Nowadays, the engine of AGV is designed in such a way that
when the moment of AGV remains stationary for few seconds, the engine will shift form high
rpm to low rpm immediately. This process saved around 32% of the AGCs total fuel
consumption. As a results, emissions of will also decrease by a large amount.
Manufacturing metal is by its very nature environmentally intensive, creating toxic
fumes and a certain amount of wastage that anything but kind to the planet. As we cut down
the amount of manufacturing going on we cut out some of the pollution and waste that
wreaks havoc on the earth and reserve the land field. Each and every metal component
produced should be fully utilized. Scrap metal that has been dumped such as car bodies and
obsolete farm machinery can contain many toxic chemicals that can leach into the
environment. These include oil, petrol and diesel, battery acids, transmission and brake fluids
4

plus radiator coolant. Sharp jagged edges of rusting metal can injure bushwalkers and wildlife
while chemicals within car bodies can cause bush fires. Whenever come to machinery, we
must deal with its maintenance. Manually operated transport system, the operator tend to
accelerate and drive at a full throttle in most of the cases just because its mens nature. The
vehicle is just toys for boys in the perspective of the operator. Therefore, it is obvious AGV
can play important role in eliminating these situation. AGV runs smoothly and efficient as
they are driven with controllable speed and acceleration. The speed and acceleration have
been calculated repeatedly to ensure optimum operating condition in both speed and energy
consumption. There will be no waste of energy due to behavior of operator. Form more than
ten years of experience it was learned that automated drives lead to lesser components wear
(tires, engines, breaks, etc.) and consequently to a longer equipment lifetime reducing the
need for maintenance and amortization. This lead to less materials waste as the components
of an AGV can last longer. The components are fully utilized for its lifetime, less material are
needed as compared to manual operation.
In addition, the best thing about AGV is the ability to perform work in a poor-lighting
area or even without any single source of light. It will just follow all the instructed tasks
being programmed and simply moving on its track perfectly without any slip. Means that,
industry also able to reducing the consume of electricity for providing in other words
reducing the company operational cost and most important thing is saving energy for supply
electricity, either energy that renewable or non-renewable since that when we talk about an
industry, we are really talking about a large scale of operations and processes which also
required a big input of sources to make it happens.
In medium heavy industry nowadays, AGV is widely being used in the assembly line.
The battery-free AGV is the most advance type of AGV being used. Chain based conveyors
create waste and require toxic chemicals for their upkeep. Lubricant must be consistently
applied to the chain in order to keep the chain working in the best condition. The chain based
conveyors also made of much more materials as compare to AGV. This type of AGV needs
fewer chemicals and other maintenance supplies. This reduces the risk of toxic chemical
being exposed to the environment and decreases the amount of waste upon break down. In
addition, batteries are highly damaging to the environment, in creation and disposal. The
disposal of rechargeable battery used in the ordinary AGV contains heavy metals such as
nickel-cadmium which will cause pollution to the environment. Heavy metal is very
dangerous to all kind of life form. Trees are not able to growth in the area of disposal. If the
disposal of battery is near water source area, the water may also being polluted. This caused
5

huge impact to the ecosystem in the life that lived in the water. Ordinary AGVs also consume
extra floor space for charging stations and batteries. With a battery-free AGV, significantly
fewer raw materials were used to create an assembly line as no charging stations are needed.
This AGV are lighter as no big battery is installed in the body which mean less energy is
required to operate it. The power cable is installed under the floor, which can be relocated
and reused if the line path is changed. Unlike chain based conveyor, change in line path need
a lot of work. Dismantle of the original line required removing the fastener that hold the
conveyor in position. Damage may be happened to the conveyor during the dismantle process
and hence waste were produced. Therefore, with battery-free AGV there will be no metal
scrap or waste of materials.

Figure 3: Example of Battery-free AGV

Economic Sustainability
Economic sustainability is the ability to support a defined level of economic
production indefinitely. [2] It is related more to the well-being of the company than the profit
earn by the company.
Automated guided vehicle (AGV) system do not need any product and equipment
change. It can replace the use of forklift and cranes in transportation products or machines.
The limitation in various material handling equipment can be easily overcome by using AGV.
AGV eliminates production delay and increasing its operating time.
6

The old traditional manual stocking are now replaced by a conventional AGV system.
AGV system has real time tracking capability that can integrated with customers existing
operational system via a simple interface. The introduction of the AGV system reflects the
improvement in material movement efficiency and transparency thus reduce labor cost. The
time before AGV is introduce working hour are short because it used shift work. With AGV
there is no need high number of labor and workers are freed from more productive task. AGV
itself is an automated system thus it can operate 24/7 with no interruption to the process. It is
also possible to rent an automated system, leaving no capital tied up in the investment [3].
By using AGV system, the product and building damage can be eliminated. Most of
the AGV today are move with magnetic strip or lesser sensor. This technology can move
AGV in a constant speed and detect obstacle nearby them. In addition, the movement path of
AGV can be predicted and control. Thus, the transferring of product or machine can be safer
and easier. Damage will not occur thus save time and cost to rebuild or fix the damage
machines or product. Transporting products or machines using forklift and crane might cause
unwanted accidents occur. This is because these material handling equipment are operate by
human. Human will always make mistake and this mistake will cause accidents. Plus, when
operating this equipment there are blind spot that cannot be seen by human eyes.
Performing industrial applications with the help of AGV actually may help us to
eliminate any damage occurrence to goods, machinery or permanent structures. Compared to
human as operators, we might unintended to do some mistakes throughout our task even
though it was not mean to be. It was a nature accident. But it never happened for a machine
like AGV. It was perfectly equipped with various safety systems or sensors in order for it to
function properly without any escorting. This kind of feature may bring a good financial save
to industry from any expensive losses compensation produced in the production line in the
best word for our case, economic sustainability can be successfully gained.
Buying AGV might be expensive but in long term service it will be a cost saving
system. The installation of AGV is quick, easy and cost effective. AGV receive power
through battery with wireless charging thus it cause no spark and enable changing wherever
the AGV stop. The custom design quick connection travel with AGV for use during vehicle
hot test, without any need for additional power

. Plus, AGV can be customized to carry

[4]

specific connection thus eliminate the use of outside system. This help to cut down the usage

of electricity and improve overall productivity. Plus, AGV has minimal maintenance and
spare parts required.
AGV can increase the re-investment cost. It provide Return on Investment which will
benefit the company business. To make easier to understand explanation using example will
be more appropriate.
Example: ABC Company operates 24/5 and has 15 forklift drivers (5 per shift), each making
$15 per hour. Employee benefits equal 30% of the base hourly rate. Overtime is paid at 1.5
times the base hourly rate and each forklift driver is averaging 5 hours of overtime weekly.
ABC Company has 6 forklifts and will not need 5 of them after the AGV system has been
installed. ABC's forklifts have a life cycle of 4 years with each new forklift costing $25,000.
[3]

Figure 4: Calculation for example

It can be seen clearly AGV has a high possibility to expand and change in the future
becoming the dominate system in manufacturing process. AGV will be the most cost
effective and reliable manufacturing system used by the whole world.

Social Sustainability
Social sustainability is the ability of a social system such as country, to function at a
defined level of social well-being indefinitely [5]. It is relation between company with worker
and company with customer.
AGV have equipped with a lot of safety features. This provide a health and safe
environment of the workers in the industry.
A contactless sensors is install on AGV where it will send a stop command to the
AGV when there are obstacle or object nearby it. This sensor is also able to detect human
thus prevent accident from happening. Manual operating material handling machine such as
forklift have several blind spot when it is operating. Accident might happen as the operator
can see what is there in the blind spot. Even if it can be seen, manual breaking or stopping the
machine may not be quick enough to prevent the unfortunate event from happening. Through
the advancement of control systems, AGVs offer a safe and predictable method of delivery,
while avoiding interference with human and building factors. This is important because it
helps to eliminate possible accidents and personal injuries. AGVs feature laser safety
bumpers, as shown in Figure 1, which stop the vehicles from running into other equipment,
inventory or walls and racks. When the obstacle is within the warning field of any of these
sensors, the AGV will decelerate to a slower speed in anticipation of a full stop. If the
obstacle is still detected within protective field of the sensor, the AGV will apply its brakes
so that it comes to a complete stop before contact is made. The AGV will resume automatic
operation approximately three seconds after the obstacle is removed from the protective field.
Therefore, there will be no damage to goods, machinery and permanent structures. The wellbeing of the worker can also be ensure.

Figure 5: Example of Contactless Sensors

AGVs run at a constant speed. AGVs guide and navigate using one of 3 principal
methods. Although nearly all new systems employ same type of non-wire navigation while
some systems still utilize wire guidance. Here the AGV uses a sensor under the vehicle to
detect the RF signal emanating from a wire placed in a slot approximately 1 inch below the
floor surface. The AGV travels on designated paths which have been prescribed by
manufacturers. The path are usually in black and yellow strips or black and white strips.
Workers in the workshop are able to see the path clearly thus everyone the workshop know
the path of the AGV. They can avoid the path of the AGV and take a safe route when
travelling around the workshop. Since the route of AGV is fixed, this will provide accident
free environment because the path of material handling machine is different from path taken
by worker.
AGVs short little downtime, and operate at a fixed rate to meet a predictable metric
for operational activity. Hence there will be no destination errors and delivery of products
would be just in time. This will improve the relationship between the company and the
customers. Product are able to delivery out in time and the status checking of product will be
fast. The reliability of the company will increase and effective productivity. In addition, the
maintenance in AGV is fast and affordable. Thus, the company can concentrate its capital in
other aspect such as quality improvement and inception technology.
The ability of AGV to working cold and hot climates is one of the interesting
specification for this machine. It was a great news for company or manufacturers as they now
can reduce the needs of manpower to handling the work. Knowing that, as a human we have
some limitations to work in certain conditions which will bring disruption for us. But not for
a machine, we design a machine for it to operate on our desired deems. So, by this perks of
10

having AGV, directly sustainability can be applied both in social and economic aspects.
Social aspects by human conveniences which not require them to work in hard condition,
while economic aspects through the elimination of cost for paying workers.
Besides that, with the presence of sirens and lights, it alert the workers of oncoming
AGVs. AGVs have warning lights, audible-warning signals and emergency stop buttons.
When the AGV is approaching a turn, the warning lights function as directional signals to
alert personnel in the area of the AGV's intention to branch right or left on the designated
path. When the AGV goes into an alarm mode, the Alarm Lights blink to indicate an alarm.
Two distinct tones are used during the vehicle's operation, an acknowledge tone and an alarm
tone. This will alert the worker that the AGV is coming or turning to his or her way. The
AGV emits a slow repeating acknowledge (run) tone during normal operation. Thus, it wont
interrupt other workers who are doing their work. The alarm tone sounds when an alarm is
active when breakdown or collision. This will alert the nearby worker on what happen.
Emergency stop buttons are provided on each AGV. When activated, the AGV enters an
emergency stop state and all motion capable equipment will become inactive. Although AGV
is fully automated, we can still manually stop it if something bad happen or it is not function
properly.

11

SUMMARY
Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) have successfully change the operation of the
industries. It is a technology that adapt automation and provide sustainability benefit to the
company and workers. The advancement of AGV had truly change the world of material
handling.
AGV system is capable to preform transportation task fully automated. The
application can be found in various industries, such as automotive, metal processing and
aerospace. AGV are equipped with various sensors and intelligent routing that enable it to
carry out transportation activities with the interference of operator. It is power by power
inductive transfer with the use of electrical power and battery. There is no need of re-fuelling.
With the technology of AGV, the environment is sustainable. AGV have successfully
cut down the emission of CO2 in transportation vehicles. It operate with less fuel
consumption and give better efficiency. Nowadays, most AGV are power by electrical power
and magnetic energy. Maintenance in less in AGV because it can operate for a long time
without any problems. AGV do not need any lubricant and do not create any waste that will
harm the environment. It only need electricity or battery to move, some are even operate with
battery-free and wireless charging.
Economic is also being sustainable by using AGV. The well-being of the company
capital and daily operation is well take care by AGV. The production delay can be eliminated
and operating time of the company can be increased. The need of labor can be decrease as
AGV and work 24/7 non-stop. Product and building damage can also be eliminated as AGV
12

only move on the path set and it have sensor that enable it to make decision. Furthermore,
AGV provide Return on Investment which benefit the company.
In addition, AGV equipped with a lot safety features that give the rise of social
sustainability. AGV are equipped with contactless sensors that can detect obstacles with
touching it. This provide safety to the products and worker as will prevent accident. Plus,
AGV move with constant speed and its travelling path can be see easily. This provide a safe
working environments. Beside, AGV can work in different climates or condition that human
can work in. The presences of siren in AGV provide caution to the workshop thus worker can
alert on what is going on.

13