AMADEUS is a new approach to combine an automated guided vehicle (AGV) with a robotic manipulator. The whole system is controlled using a manufacturing execution system (MES) to constantly optimize the productivity of the production process. Therefore AMADEUS integrates well-known and industry-approved techniques into an entirely new robotic solution for intralogistics applications like part supply, machine-tending or quality control. The resulting AMADEUS platform features free navigation without markers, omnidirectional movement thanks to mecanum wheels and a light weight robot arm with 5 kg payload. A modular setup consisting of the reusable mobile platform and the light weight robot arm and an easy to exchange application- specific build-up allow fast adaption to different applications.
An exemplary demonstrator has successfully been set up and tested in an often occurring scenario: the supply of parts in boxes to a manual workplace. Whenever a box is empty AMADEUS is commanded by the MES system to pick a full box in the magazine, bring it to the manual work place and take the empty box back to the magazine where it can be refilled.
The German partners in this research and development project was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) within the Framework Concept ”Research for Tomorrow’s Production“ and managed by the Project Management Agency Karlsruhe (PTKA). The author is responsible for the contents of this publication.
