Automated guided vehicle with absolute encoded guide-path

An automated guided vehicle (AGV) having the ability to recover its absolute position anywhere on the guide-path is described. It uses an original guide-path encoding technique, based on the properties of pseudorandom binary sequences, resulting in a minimum code complexity of 1 bit per quantization step. An experimental AGV system was built to test the proposed absolute position measurement method and its application for AGV navigation when unexpected obstacles are encountered on the guide-path. The results recommend this technique for implementation as a stand-alone function to cost-effectively upgrade existent optically guided industrial AGVs