From Coordination to Efficiency: Boosting Smart Robot Use Via Hybrid Intralogistics Concepts

Automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and Autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) are widely used in intralogistics for material delivery and product transport. As manufacturing evolves with Industry 5.0, the integration of autonomous systems, particularly in complex shop floor layouts, plays a crucial role in improving efficiency and reducing human intervention. This study explores various intralogistics concepts for AGVs and AMRs collaborating on an assembly line. We also define an online dispatching rule for AGVs benchmark it against previous implementations on high-mix-low-volume production. All proposed concept-related decisions are analyzed via a simulation model under a real-world case study, with sensitivity analyses varying system parameters. We observe an improvement of up to 51% in the hourly throughput rate and a significant drop in AGV utilization rates of up to 88% compared to benchmark instances. The results also show that pooling<br/>AGV/AMR resources achieves a higher throughput rate, and consequently reduces investment costs.