Automated guided vehicle (AGV)

Concept

A driverless vehicle that moves material along set routes in a factory or warehouse, guided for example by markers, wires, lasers or maps. Fleet size and routes are classic planning questions.

Description

An automated guided vehicle, or AGV, carries material between places in a factory or warehouse without a driver. In German it is called a fahrerloses Transportsystem, FTS. Vehicles follow set routes and are guided by markers, wires, laser scanners or digital maps. Newer vehicles that plan their own path are often called autonomous mobile robots.

A key planning question is how many vehicles are needed. Too few cause waiting parts and idle lines, too many block each other at crossings and charging points. The answer depends on transport orders, distances, speeds, loading times, traffic rules and battery charging, which interact in ways that are hard to see by hand. That is why plants often use simulation to size the fleet and test the layout before buying.

Related topics in brief

• iFAKT GmbH · Related to · Organization
  Stuttgart-based consulting company and software specialist for Industry 4.0, founded in 2001, that helps manufacturers plan and optimize production and logistics processes; developer of the Polaris software.
• Factory simulation · Related to · Concept
  A controlled model of how work moves through part of a factory, using current operating rules, resources, orders and normal variation, so a proposed change such as an extra shift, new machine or smaller buffer can be tested before it is made.
• Digital twin · Related to · Concept
  A maintained digital representation of a physical resource, its relationships and its operating conditions, kept up to date from observations.
• Polaris Simulator · Related to · Product
  Module of iFAKT Polaris that tests the production system virtually, for example capacity, staffing and buffer scenarios, and reveals bottlenecks before changes are made.
• Bottleneck (production) · Related to · Concept
  The resource or process step that limits how much work can pass through a production system in a given period; after a disruption the bottleneck can shift to another machine, inspection step, tool or person.
• Industry 4.0 · Related to · Concept
  The networked, data-driven digitalization of industrial production, in which machines, products, software and people exchange data in real time; often called the smart factory or the fourth industrial revolution.

Glossary

Experts and companies for this topic

• Mirko Peters · Microsoft MVP

Maintained by Mirko Peters (Microsoft MVP) · Last updated: 2026-11-11