A Hybrid Metric for Navigation of Autonomous Intralogistics Vehicles in Mixed Indoor and Outdoor Operation

While autonomous guided vehicle systems are increasingly used in homogeneous and structured environments, their use in complex and variable scenarios is usually limited. Established algorithms for the navigation of systems use static maps with deterministic metrics, which can only achieve optimal results in clearly defined environments. In dynamic and extensive deployment scenarios, which are also dependent on a large number of influencing parameters, autonomous intralogistics systems cannot yet be deployed dynamically. One example here is mixed transport between buildings under changing weather conditions. As a solution for dynamic navigation, we propose a hybrid metric in combination with topological maps and cyclic environmental sensing. Based on a quantification of influencing factors on each intralogistics entity, an optimal and dynamic navigation of every system can be performed at any time. The individual components are implemented in the context of an autonomous tow truck system and evaluated in different application scenarios. The results show significant added value in use cases with sudden weather changes and complex route networks

The Evolution of 5G: Delineating the Impact and Limitations across Transportation, Education, Healthcare, Agriculture, and Manufacturing

A world previously only thought possible in science fiction is about to become a reality. A world where doctors can operate on patients thousands of miles away. A world where students can experience ancient cities and distant galalike they are physically there. A world of fully self-driving cars. A world where every step of the supply chain is automated. A world where factories have a handful of employees overseeing robots handling the entire manufacturing process. A world of fully autonomous farms, where one farmer can manage an entire farm from seed to harvest from their smartphone. The development, implementation, and adoption of 5G cellular networks will make this world a possibility. 5G is the fifth generation of cellular networks. It is the successor of the current fourth generation (4G) networks. 5G technology is characterized by ultra-low latency, massive data rates, near perfect reliability, extreme density of connection, and wide coverage areas. 5G is not just another “G”, it has the potential to completely disrupt the way we work and live (Binney, 2020). 5G networks will impact the world in an almost infinite number of ways. Business models will change, the way people work will change, the way students learn will change, the way patients get health care will change, the way people get their food will change, the way people drive will change. In this thesis, I examine the development, applications, benefits, and socioeconomic impacts of 5G technology, as well as current limitations facing the industry and ways to address them

The Evolution of 5G: Delineating the Impact and Limitations across Transportation, Education, Healthcare, Agriculture, and Manufacturing

A world previously only thought possible in science fiction is about to become a reality. A world where doctors can operate on patients thousands of miles away. A world where students can experience ancient cities and distant galalike they are physically there. A world of fully self-driving cars. A world where every step of the supply chain is automated. A world where factories have a handful of employees overseeing robots handling the entire manufacturing process. A world of fully autonomous farms, where one farmer can manage an entire farm from seed to harvest from their smartphone. The development, implementation, and adoption of 5G cellular networks will make this world a possibility. 5G is the fifth generation of cellular networks. It is the successor of the current fourth generation (4G) networks. 5G technology is characterized by ultra-low latency, massive data rates, near perfect reliability, extreme density of connection, and wide coverage areas. 5G is not just another “G”, it has the potential to completely disrupt the way we work and live (Binney, 2020). 5G networks will impact the world in an almost infinite number of ways. Business models will change, the way people work will change, the way students learn will change, the way patients get health care will change, the way people get their food will change, the way people drive will change. In this thesis, I examine the development, applications, benefits, and socioeconomic impacts of 5G technology, as well as current limitations facing the industry and ways to address them

Multisensor navigation systems: a remedy for GNSS vulnerabilities?

Space-based positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) technologies, such as the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) provide position, velocity, and timing information to an unlimited number of users around the world. In recent years, PNT information has become increasingly critical to the security, safety, and prosperity of the World's population, and is now widely recognized as an essential element of the global information infrastructure. Due to its vulnerabilities and line-of-sight requirements, GNSS alone is unable to provide PNT with the required levels of integrity, accuracy, continuity, and reliability. A multisensor navigation approach offers an effective augmentation in GNSS-challenged environments that holds a promise of delivering robust and resilient PNT. Traditionally, sensors such as inertial measurement units (IMUs), barometers, magnetometers, odometers, and digital compasses, have been used. However, recent trends have largely focused on image-based, terrain-based and collaborative navigation to recover the user location. This paper offers a review of the technological advances that have taken place in PNT over the last two decades, and discusses various hybridizations of multisensory systems, building upon the fundamental GNSS/IMU integration. The most important conclusion of this study is that in order to meet the challenging goals of delivering continuous, accurate and robust PNT to the ever-growing numbers of users, the hybridization of a suite of different PNT solutions is required

Autonomous mobile robot travel under deadlock and collision prevention algorithms by agent-based modelling in warehouses

Recent dramatic increase in e-commerce has also increased the adoption of automation technologies in warehouses. Autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) are from those technologies widely utilized in warehouse operations. It is important to design the operation of those robotic systems in such a way that, they meet the current and future system requirements correctly. In this paper, we study flexible travel of AMRs in warehouses by developing smart deadlock and collision prevention algorithms on agent-based modelling. By that, AMR agents can interact with each other and environment, so that they can make smart decisions maximizing their goals. We compare the performance of the developed flexible travel system with non-flexible designs where there is a single AMR dedicated to a specific zone so that no deadlock or collision possibility takes place. The results show that AMRs may provide up to 39% improvement in the flexible system compared to its non-flexible design

Internet of robotic things : converging sensing/actuating, hypoconnectivity, artificial intelligence and IoT Platforms

The Internet of Things (IoT) concept is evolving rapidly and influencing newdevelopments in various application domains, such as the Internet of MobileThings (IoMT), Autonomous Internet of Things (A-IoT), Autonomous Systemof Things (ASoT), Internet of Autonomous Things (IoAT), Internetof Things Clouds (IoT-C) and the Internet of Robotic Things (IoRT) etc.that are progressing/advancing by using IoT technology. The IoT influencerepresents new development and deployment challenges in different areassuch as seamless platform integration, context based cognitive network integration,new mobile sensor/actuator network paradigms, things identification(addressing, naming in IoT) and dynamic things discoverability and manyothers. The IoRT represents new convergence challenges and their need to be addressed, in one side the programmability and the communication ofmultiple heterogeneous mobile/autonomous/robotic things for cooperating,their coordination, configuration, exchange of information, security, safetyand protection. Developments in IoT heterogeneous parallel processing/communication and dynamic systems based on parallelism and concurrencyrequire new ideas for integrating the intelligent “devices”, collaborativerobots (COBOTS), into IoT applications. Dynamic maintainability, selfhealing,self-repair of resources, changing resource state, (re-) configurationand context based IoT systems for service implementation and integrationwith IoT network service composition are of paramount importance whennew “cognitive devices” are becoming active participants in IoT applications.This chapter aims to be an overview of the IoRT concept, technologies,architectures and applications and to provide a comprehensive coverage offuture challenges, developments and applications

A Systematic Literature Review on Innovative Technologies Adopted in Logistics Management

Many innovative technologies have been successfully adopted in logistics and supply chain management processes to increase efficiency, reduce costs or enhance communication. In recent years, considerable attention from both practitioners and academics has been focused on evaluating the impacts of innovative technologies adoption. However, the current body of literature on technology adoption, implementation and evaluation in logistics is quite fragmented; thus, an updated and structured overview of the scientific literature in this field might be useful. To this end, this work presents a systematic literature review (SLR) that aims to increase the understanding of the trend toward new technologies in logistics and identify the main research trends and gaps. The principal research trends that emerged from the SLR involve the technologies, their evolution over time and their relationships with the research methodologies. The main literature gaps concern integration and communication, technology-adoption processes and differences between inbound and outbound logistics