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- Path: sparky!uunet!ogicse!uwm.edu!wupost!decwrl!csus.edu!netcom.com!nagle
- From: nagle@netcom.com (John Nagle)
- Newsgroups: sci.electronics
- Subject: Re: Guided Vehicles
- Message-ID: <9z6m-5m.nagle@netcom.com>
- Date: 14 Aug 92 18:26:28 GMT
- Article-I.D.: netcom.9z6m-5m.nagle
- References: <kwilli.2@elaine.ee.und.ac.za> <josef.713714826@uranium> <1992Aug14.155048.28576@news.columbia.edu>
- Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest)
- Lines: 24
-
- In <kwilli.2@elaine.ee.und.ac.za> kwilli@elaine.ee.und.ac.za (KEVIN WILLIAMS : THIRD) writes:
- >I am currently investigating circuitry to provide automated guidance to a
- >model car by means of a wire taped to the floor carrying some high frequency
- >signal which is detected by sensors on the car. This is used to provide
- >steering information etc.
-
- This is a common way of guiding factory robot vehicles. The wire
- usually carries a current modulated with some audio frequency, and the
- vehicle has a pair of tuned amplifiers connected to sensing coils.
- The difference from the amplifer outputs is used to generate steering
- corrections, and the sum of the amplifier outputs must be above some
- threshold to indicate that the wire is actually being sensed.
-
- You can also transmit other control info over the wire, using a
- carrier-current radio system. This is all standard technology in
- factory automation today.
-
- The latest generation of AGVs have enough navigational capability
- to leave the guide wire for short distances. So typically the wire
- can run straight down an aisle, and the AGV can turn off the wire to make
- a stop at some machine it feeds. Caterpillar makes a lift truck like
- AGV that uses this approach.
-
- John Nagle
-