Testing AGV mobility control method for MANET coverage optimization using procedural simulation

In industrial applications continuous wireless connectivity of mobile clients can rarely by guaranteed. Lack of communication negatively impacts the performance of industrial automation systems, e.g. Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) fleets. Utilizing industrial Mobile Ad-hoc NETworks (MANETs) and an adaptive positioning scheme can reduce the number of disconnections in AGV fleets. Therefore, the performance of the mobile system (e.g. AGV fleet) is improved and factory efficiency increased. In this work procedural simulation is used to examine wireless communication in industrial applications. This method enables the observation of the interaction of mobility control system, network status and robotic system performance independently from a specific environment or scenario. Novel insights on the effectiveness of ad-hoc communication in industrial applications and the correlation of AGV fleet connectedness and AGV fleet transport performance are presented. Additionally, a control method is proposed, which improves the network coverage of an industrial MANET and efficiency of AGV fleets.