What are driverless transport vehicles?

Driverless transport vehicles are a floor-bound transport system designed for the automated transport of materials. The control systems that coordinate multiple vehicles are called driverless transport systems. The use of these transport systems helps save time, costs, and personnel, although the initial investment can be significant. In the long term, however, driverless transport vehicles are especially beneficial due to shorter throughput times, increased flexibility in warehouse operations, and better predictability of material flows.

Driverless transport vehicles are available as tuggers, carts, or pallet trucks for transport operations, and as forklifts for stacking and transport tasks. Standard systems support a load capacity of up to 50 tons, can travel up to 10 kilometers, and move at an average speed of one meter per second. Depending on the guidance principle, driverless transport vehicles follow either real or virtual guide paths.

With real guidance lines, the transport systems navigates using lines installed on or embedded in the floor. These include mechanical, inductive, optical, and magnetic guidance systems, with the vehicle orienting itself along fixed lines or markings placed in the travel path.

With virtual guidance lines, the driverless transport vehicle navigates using digital environmental models stored in its onboard computer. It follows programmed routes based on reference points, distance tables, and destination data. The positioning of it’s in this system is achieved using technologies such as dead reckoning, inertial navigation, scanning lasers, positioning beacons, ultrasound, or image processing systems.

If a driverless transport vehicle does not follow any of these guidance principles, it is considered an autonomous vehicle. It independently determines the optimal path from point A to point B. Although this type of driverless transport vehicle is still in the early development stage, only a few models are currently operational, but they represent a promising innovation for the future.