Linus Väthröder
Otto-von-Taube-Gymnasium
Titel der Forschungsarbeit: Development of a Collaborative Autonomous Multi–Robot System for Intralogistics
Fakultät: TUM School of Engineering and Design
Lehrstuhl: Lehrstuhl für Fördertechnik Materialfluss Logistik
Betreuung: Florian Rothmeyer
Abstract der Forschungsarbeit
This research paper documents the development of a collaborative autonomous multi robot system, designed for use in intralogistics. Intralogistics is a highly complex and disruptive area of logistics that deals with the organization, control, execution, and optimization of internal material and information flows, as well as the handling of goods in industry, commerce, and public institutions. Conventional intralogistics systems are often inflexible, nontransparent, and expensive due to their design. Industry 4.0 is opening up new possibilities for the automation of production facilities. As a result, the demands on intralogistics are increasing in terms of flexibility, cost optimization, and speed. The use of autonomous mobile robots is intended to meet these requirements, but robots from various manufacturers are not yet able to communicate with each other. There is no guidance controller that controls the robots using different types of software. In a joint project at the Chair of Materials Handling, Material Flow, Logistics at the TUM, a multi-robot system was developed that is capable of collaboratively dividing a transport job among several robots. The focus of this scientific paper is on the Graphical User Interface of the system and the transformation of coordinates between the robots and the guidance controller. The implementation was carried out with a proof of concept using two robots provided by the Chair. The guidance controller based on Node.js was set up as a centralized server on one of the two robots, and the input of orders by the user was provided via a web interface. The system was successfully tested with some external restrictions. The multi-robot system not only demonstrates the possibility of successful collaboration between robots from different suppliers but also shows the obstacles that have to be overcome during development and implementation.