Case Study Useful for In-House Production of Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) to Improve Productivity

Issue: To Improve Productivity by Introducing AGVs That Match the Conditions of the Company's Facilities

Existing Problems/Requests

• Commercially available AGVs are not compatible with the company's facilities, adoption of AGVs has not progressed, and stalled efforts to improve productivity.
• To produce a highly practical AGV, but the time and effort required for design and assembly makes it a burden to introduce.
• It should be controlled by software that is easy to handle even for inexperienced users.

Solution: In-house AGV Equipped With the Brushless Motor BLV-R Series for Improved Productivity

Improving productivity is one of the key issues. In order to reduce the workload of factory staff and improve productivity, it is necessary to introduce AGVs suited to the company's needs. However, the time and effort required to design and assemble them has stalled their introduction.
Oriental Motor's brushless motor BLV-R Series and mobile robot controller reduce the time and effort required for design and assembly, contributing to the creation of compact and lightweight AGVs.

Image of an In-House AGV Using the BLV-R Series

Battery-Driven, Compact, Lightweight and High-power Motor Suitable for AGVs

By introducing the brushless motor BLV-R Series, you can build a compact, lightweight in-house AGVs that can be operated even in small-scale factories. The motor (parallel shaft gearhead 400 W with gear ratio 30) is 146 mm in length and with a mass of 4.5 kg, while the driver is compact and lightweight at 65 mm (width) x 75 mm (depth) x 29 mm (height) and mass of 0.12 kg. It has already been adopted as the drive source for AGVs by many customers, including AGVs manufacturers.

Motor^*

Driver

The high-power motor allows for the transportation of heavy loads. The maximum transportable mass of an AGV equipped with the BLV-R Series 400W motor is 500 kg.

[Transportation Robot Equipment Design Example]

Conditions

BLV-R Series Motor	Type	Parallel shaft gearhead
	Output Power	400 W
	Gear Ratio	30
Driving Condition	Wheel Diameter	150 mm
	Number of Drive Wheels	2
	Acceleration Time	1 sec.

Result

Maximum Transportable Mass (Transport robot body mass + load mass)	500 kg
Maximum Travel Speed	0.7 m/sec

• *Calculated using a wheel friction coefficient of 0.1.

Mobile Robot Controller to Control AGV Motors

The lineup also includes robot controller convenient for driving AGVs with the brushless motor BLV-R Series. The MVC01 is a robot controller that controls the motors of transfer robot based on commands from a host controller. Equipped with the travel control functions required for AGVs, the MVC01 operates while keeping track of its own travel coordinates.
Compared to direct control by host controllers, it can reduce the number of ROS nodes and self-written programs, contributing to a reduction in the burden of software design.

Setup is done with the free downloadable software "MVC Studio.” The MVC Studio supports the mobile robot controller MVC01 from startup to maintenance, allowing the user to set and edit various parameters and monitor various statuses.

Proposed Product: Brushless Motor BLV-R Series Driving Wheel Motor

Driving Wheel Motor

Motor Rated Output Power

• 100 W, 200 W, 400 W

Combinable Mobile Robot Controller

• Mobile Robot Controller MVC01