Decentralized Coordination of AMRs

Regulations for Autonomous Mobile Robots

JournalIndustry 4.0 Science
Issue Volume 42, 2026, Edition 3, Pages 96-105
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Abstract

The increasing automation of intralogistics requires flexible and resilient control concepts for Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMR). While centralized coordination approaches enable stringent control, they quickly reach their limits in terms of scalability and robustness. This paper therefore presents regulations for the decentralized coordination of AMR within the framework of the ORPHEUS project. The focus is on translating known decentralized decision-making principles into a rule framework tailored to industrial material flow scenarios, addressing both operational task assignment and safety-related conflict situations. ORPHEUS thus makes a significant contribution to the methodological structuring, parameterization, and practical transferability of decentralized coordination logics.

Keywords

Article

Automation solutions for material transport in intralogistics Intralogistics encompasses all internal material, information, and goods flows necessary for supplying production and warehousing processes [1]. Driverless transport vehicles (FTF), also known as Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV), typically follow fixed guidelines or markers and are centrally controlled [2]. In contrast, Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) navigate freely within their environment using methods such as Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) and make decentralized decisions based on local sensor data [3]. This capability leads to significantly greater flexibility, simplified adaptation to changing environments, as …

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