A Master-Slave Separate Parallel Intelligent Mobile Robot Used for Autonomous Pallet Transportation

Abstract

This work reports a master-slave separate parallel intelligent mobile robot for the fully autonomous transportation of pallets in the smart factory logistics. This separate parallel intelligent mobile robot consists of two independent sub robots, one master robot and one slave robot. It is similar to two forks of the forklift, but the slave robot does not have any physical or mechanical connection with the master robot. A compact driving unit was designed and used to ensure access to the narrow free entry under the pallets. It was also possible for the mobile robot to perform a synchronous pallet lifting action. In order to ensure the consistency and synchronization of the motions of the two sub robots, high-gain observer was used to synchronize the moving speed, the lifting speed and the relative position. Compared with the traditional forklift AGV (Automated Guided Vehicle), the mobile robot has the advantages of more compact structure, higher expandability and safety. It can move flexibly and take zero-radius turn. Therefore, the intelligent mobile robot is quite suitable for the standardized logistics factory with small working space.

Analysis on Mechanical Structure and Automatic Control of an Intelligent Logistics Vehicle

“…The existing motor types include brushless DC motor, brushless DC servo motor, stepper motor and permanent magnet synchronous motor, and so on [10].…”

“…The e-commerce industry is a product of the Internet development process. With the rise and rapid development of the e-commerce industry, the requirements for the logistics industry are constantly rising [1]. As the traditional logistics and transportation can no longer meet the needs of the current e-commerce, people have begun to look for a new mode of transportation.…”

Special Feature on Advanced Mobile Robotics

“…Mobile robots also handle autonomous transportation of pallets in smart factory logistics. Li et al [4] used an intelligent mobile robot platform consisting of master-slave parallel robots.…”

A Parallel Bioinspired Algorithm for Chinese Postman Problem Based on Molecular Computing

“…e Chinese postman problem (CPP) was first raised by Guan Meigu [1] in the 1960s, and it was based on the question of "how should a postman choose a route so that he can walk all the streets where he is responsible for delivering the letter and the shortest distance traveled?" It arises in numerous applications in many fields, such as municipal solid waste collection [2], winter gritting [3], material distribution and transportation [4], and intelligent transportation [5]. Over the past half century, many branches have been formed in the study of the Chinese postman problem, such as the directed Chinese postman problem (DCPP) [6], the mixed Chinese postman problem (MCPP) [7], the windy postman problem (WPP) [8], and the hierarchical Chinese postman problem (HCPP) [9].…”