Evolution of automated guided vehicles (AGVs) in the logistics 4.0 landscape: A classification framework and empirical insights

The increasing demand for highly customised products and short delivery lead times is requiring production and logistics systems to become more flexible and reactive to customers’ requests. In this landscape, the so-called fourth industrial revolution is fostering the development of new technologies which may help companies deal with the evolved customers’ needs at reasonable costs. While this phenomenon has been widely addressed in the scientific literature with reference to manufacturing systems, only few and very recent contributions are dealing with the Logistics 4.0 paradigm, and specifically focusing on material handling systems. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the evolution of Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) in the Logistics 4.0 landscape. The research was structured into two main steps. First, a thorough review of the literature on AGVs led to the identification of their key characteristics. A classification framework for AGV solutions was developed, based on three dimensions: Navigation path, Communication, and Decision. In the second step, five European material handling technology providers were interviewed in order to validate the classification framework and gain insights on the AGV solutions available on the market. Results showed that AGVs are turning into highly flexible autonomous vehicles through the development of open navigation paths, Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication and decentralised decision-making capabilities.