Local Navigation for an Industrial Warehouse Robot

Automation, autonomy and the increase in accuracy and quality of modern industrial systems represents an important step towards the creation of Industry 4.0 systems. The task of transportation of goods and objects in industrial premises is strategic, therefore this paper is devoted to the investigation and feasibility of integrating a navigation system that takes into account the terrain map of the premises into a robot transporter. The implementation of local navigation provides autonomous and safe movement of robotic transportation systems. The paper presents the advantages of local navigation and evaluates the multipath problem in order to minimize the positioning errors. An important advantage of the solution proposed in the paper is the algorithm of interaction between hardware and software parts of the complex, which allows to increase the accuracy of determining the location of the robot-transporter in a room with obstacles, relying on a previously known map of the area of the room. This is realized by using local navigation based on ultra-wideband signals and algorithms of the Internet of Things systems, which provide high accuracy and reliability, which favorably affects the safety of cargo transportation. Experimental data obtained by simulation of common scenarios of robot-transporter movement showed the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed algorithm for a wide range of applications of the navigation system.