Browsing by Author "Neto, Pedro Alexandre Afonso"
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- Towards the industrialized AGVS with stringent safety requirements for the cooperative settingPublication . Neto, Pedro Alexandre Afonso; Silva, Manuel Fernando dos SantosAs efficiency and flexibility dictate the sustainability of the manufacturing industry, evermore, automation is becoming a requirement rather than a benefit. The Autonomous Guided Vehicle (AGV) proposes a flexible and scalable approach for automating the intralogistics of a manufacturing process. However, the solution entails safety concerns resulting from the shared space between people and the machine. The cooperative setting requires stringent protective measures to enable the AGV for industrial applications. With the intent to introduce AGV in their applications, Gislotica prompted the subject of this thesis: research the safety challenges for industrial AGV applications; and, design and validate an AGV safety system for a creel application. Following established standards and regulatory AGV requirements, the project sought to devise the methodology to achieve functional safety in AGV applications. Preventing collisions with personnel in the cooperative setting is arguably the most critical role of these safety systems. Accordingly, the personnel detection and drivebased safety functions were integrated under the safety system to provide personnel protection while not compromising the natural navigation system. Notably, for devising the protection fields that project the braking space of the AGV, the thesis relied on the simulation of the modelled vehicle braking kinematics. The resulting safety system, designed and implemented for a creel application, was able to validate the methodology and raise findings regarding the characteristics of an AGV safety system. A major takeaway from this thesis is the need to analyse the full range of vehicle kinematics when devising the personnel detection system. Moreover, based on the thesis findings, it was possible to identify shortcomings with the current standardization and alternative methodology for devising personnel detection systems. The thesis was able to contribute to the knowledge base and available methodology in the context of AGV safety with a case study set in a real industrial application.