Izzy | Autonomous Transport Vehicle – Phase 2

Izzy  is a load carrying vehicle that moves regularly without the need for a driver in factory, warehouse, large-area facilities areas.

The purpose of Izzy – Autonomous Transport Vehicle; is to eliminate the difficulties faced by physical workers in factory environments and to keep up with the developments in technology and to increase the speed of work by using robots instead. At the same time, since the vehicle can move on its own without the need for a driver, driver-related accidents will be prevented, thus creating a safer working environment.

In the first article, more comprehensive information is given under the headings of Autonomous Vehicles, A Brief History of Autonomous Vehicles, Izzy – What is an Autonomous Transport Vehicle?, What is it used for?, How does it work?, advantages. You can access it from the link below:

https://tdgintranet.com/blog/automation/izzy-autonomous-transport-vehicle/onur-karatas/

Izzy:

Izzy – Autonomous Transport Vehicle is a load carrying vehicle that can travel by sensing the traffic situation, road, and environmental conditions without the need for a driver, as it is equipped with an automatic control system. Thanks to the sensors embedded in the system, it can be used in factories, warehouses, large-area facilities, etc. environments. This project, which is being worked on, was assembled with the system installed in a plastic container at the initial stage.To provide energy, batteries, motors to move the vehicle and sensors embedded in the system work together with the main control card.

Izzy has line tracking sensors and distance sensors. With line tracking sensors, the vehicle moves forward in a controlled manner by following the line drawn on the ground in the environment where the vehicle will operate.

While the vehicle is in motion, when an obstacle is in front of it or a certain distance is approached, the distance sensors are activated, and the vehicle stops. When the dangerous distance situation disappears, the vehicle continues to move. Thus, by making safe progress, accidents etc. situations are avoided.

In addition, there are central control devices (HMI screen, PC, Tablet, Smart phone, etc.) to send the vehicle to the desired location and to get information about the vehicle. In the interface created to be transferred to these devices, data such as the vehicle’s speed, location, battery information, whether there is a load on it can be accessed through the sensors on the vehicle (speed sensor, load sensor, battery sensor, etc.). The vehicle, which was designed in a plastic container at the initial stage, had 2 drive wheels. These drive wheels, which were connected to the engines and would move the vehicle, were located in the middle of the vehicle. In addition to the drive wheels used, there are two caster wheels, front and rear, both to reduce the load carrying weight per wheel and to enable the vehicle to make sharp turns even in tight spaces. Below are pictures of the work done in a plastic container:

The first studies to realize the movement of the vehicle were made on this plastic container.

Later, drawings were made from the SketchUP program for a more original and more useful exterior design.

After the drawing operations were carried out, the exterior design was removed. The following images show the exterior design with a length of 90 cm, a width of 54 cm and a height of 37.7 cm, which was produced in the form of a wooden board:

The exterior design made with this wooden board prepared as a prototype is the material to be used in the development phase of the project.  In the Future stages, the exoskeleton is planned to be molded with fiberglass fabric, taking into account the strength (resistance to bending – bending) and weight factors.

At the stage reached so far, progress processes have been started with line tracking.  The first target aimed in the sections mentioned above is to ensure that the vehicle reaches the desired targets and gives the desired results with line tracking. The actual planned goal of how the vehicle will travel afterwards; is that the vehicle goes to the station it needs to go from its location by making its own route planning.

For this, by mapping with a lidar sensor, the vehicle will be able to make its own road planning and reach the desired station in an algorithmic manner together with the vehicle location information. With this method, a product that is both more useful and will make a difference with competing products will be created.