Designing an Automated Guided Vehicle configuration software

Abstract

Automation in terms of automated guided vehicles (AGVs) may sound very modern, but has been around longer than one may think. The first automated guided vehicle systems were invented in the 1950s, and have since become a huge factor for successful logistics in larger warehouses [15]. One of the early adopters of the thennew technology were Kollmorgen Automation (KMA), called NDC at the time. KMA installed the first global application of AGV systems in 1976 at Tetra Pak’s factories and have since played a key role in advancing the technology [3]. When implementing an AGV system in a warehouse, or developing a new AGV vehicle, various software are used, and KMA develop some of this software. A crucial step of developing a new vehicle is the vehicle configuration, and it is around this software that this project has revolved. This master’s thesis project investigates what factors are important when designing a vehicle configuration tool for AGVs, and presents a design concept for such software. The project has been conducted together with KMA. In this study, two user groups have been studied: Expert users and beginner users. The expert users of vehicle configuration tools are engineers at KMA and their partner companies. An interview study was conducted to understand their needs and to construct a user journey. In order to get a representation of users less accommodated with the current KMA, beginner users were also investigated. This since one of the major issues with the current software is that they are difficult to learn. In order to understand the usability issues and flaws of the current software tools that beginners might encounter, a usability test was conducted. Based on the user studies, design guidelines were created. A design proposal was also created in the form of a clickable prototype. The prototype was redesigned and refined through several iterations evaluated with usability tests and expert interviews. The result of the project is a set of guidelines for designing these types of software tools, and a design proposal for the KMA case, utilizing said guidelines.