METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DESCRIBING, GENERATING AND CHECKING NON-WIRE GUIDEPATHS FOR AUTOMATIC GUIDED VEHICLES

A method and system for controlling the movement of one or more automatic guided vehicles includes a system controller, a number of non-wire automatic guided vehicles (AGV's) and location markers positioned on a floor. The system controller serves as a dispatcher and traffic controller for the system, providing, in one embodiment, two way wireless communication to each AGV in the system. Each AGV is equipped with a navigation and guidance system for controlling the AGV's movement along a predefined guidepath. Differential X, Y-coordinates from a path point database stored in the system controller are communicated to a given AGV which can then follow the predefined guidepath. Communicating just the differential X, Y-coordinates allows for improved control over systems utilizing a large number of AGV's.