Increasing the flexibility and intelligence of material handling through the factory by integrated fuzzy logic controller with programmable logic controller

Material handling in manufacturing systems is becoming easier as the automated machine technology is improved. Increasing the flexibility and intelligence of material handling devices through the factory, provides great advantages for industry. Reducing the labour cost, reducing the lead time, better quality and so on, are the major advantages which are provided. Nowadays, most of the research aims at increasing flexibility and improving performance of automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) which is the major vehicle in material handling. This paper bases on two previous works by authors which were proposing integrated fuzzy logic controller with programmable logic controller (IFLPLC) and the second one is controlling the navigation of an automatic guided vehicle (AGVs) using (IFLPLC). Using integrated fuzzy logic programmable logic control (IFLPLC) it was possible to increase the flexibility of AGV and achieve great advantages, which can be used in the future. Since this AGV uses PLC and FLC together then it will be useful for factories, which implement flexible manufacturing systems (FMSs).