Autonomous Navigation of AGVs in Automated Container Terminals

In this paper, an autonomous navigation system for autonomous guided vehicles (AGVs) operated in an automated container terminal is designed. The navigation system is based on the sensors detecting the range and bearing. The navigation algorithm used is an interacting multiple model (IMM) algorithm to detect other AGVs and avoid other obstacles using informations obtained from multiple sensors. As models to detect other AGVs (or obstacles), two kinematic models are derived： Constant velocity model for linear motion and constant speed turn model for curvilinear motion. For constant speed turn model, an unscented Kalman filter (UKF) is used because of drawbacks of the extended Kalman filter (EKF) in nonlinear system. The suggested algorithm reduces the root mean squares error for linear motions, while it can rapidly detect possible turning motions.