A decentralized control strategy for the coordination of AGV systems

This paper deals with the complex problem of controlling and coordinating Autonomous Guided Vehicles (AGV) by a decentralized approach. Each AGV selects its route by a consensus algorithm based on some Integer Linear Programming problem solutions. Moreover, the AGVs move inside a zone-controlled guidepath network and coordinate their movements by a decentralized protocol based on a zone-controlled approach, which guarantees the avoidance of deadlocks and collisions. The proposed decentralized strategy is applied to a guidepath network by means of a simulation software.