American Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 2013, Vol. 1, No.

7, 343-348
Available online at http://pubs.sciepub.com/ajme/1/7/38
© Science and Education Publishing
DOI:10.12691/ajme-1-7-38

Control of Automated Guided Vehicle with PLC

SIMATIC ET200S CPU
Martin Kajan*, Leo Mrafko,František Duchoň, Peter Hubinský, Ján Šovčfík

Institute of Control and Industrial Informatics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Slovak University of
Technology in Bratislava, Ilkovičova 3, 812 19 Bratislava, Slovak Republic
*Corresponding author: martin.kajan@stuba.sk

Received October 04, 2013; Revised October 14, 2013; Accepted November 05, 2013
Abstract Automated guided vehicle systems currently represent modern technology of industrial transportation,
which meets criteria for time demanding requirements for material handling. They are particularly useful in
operation with focus on field of discrete manufacturing especially in plants, where transport scheme is persistently
repeated. This article is focused on development of mobile automated guided vehicle (AGV) controlled by
decentralized periphery PLC SIMATIC ET200S CPU. The design of AGV vehicle lies in choosing appropriate
driver motor type, design of motor driver for direction and speed control, design of safety components, and in
choosing ET200S station modules configuration. The control algorithm for motion control of differential drive
chassis is programmed in SIMATIC STEP 7 in LAD, FBD and STL languages. Graphical user interface for vehicle
handling is created in WinCC Flexible environment which is implemented into wireless mobile panel MP277F
IWLAN with touch screen. The communication between mobile panel and AGV vehicle is realized via industrial
wireless LAN (IWLAN) based on SIMATIC NET product of the SCALANCE W series.
Keywords: Automated guided vehicle (AGV), Motor driver, PWM, PLC, IWLAN, HMI
Cite This Article: Martin Kajan, Leo Mrafko,František Duchoň, Peter Hubinský, and Ján Šovčík, “Control of
Automated Guided Vehicle with PLC SIMATIC ET200S CPU.” American Journal of Mechanical Engineering 1,
no. 7 (2013): 343-348. doi: 10.12691/ajme-1-7-38.

controller (PLC). PLC is a programmable digital computer

1. Introduction programmed by the user to perform the desired function.
Since the PLC is capable to rapidly process perceptions of
Today in the world of consumer society, where the the environment and also allows processing of digital and
corporations and organizations are seeking to improve analog signals from the sensors, we decided to use a PLC
work efficiency, reduce the cost of human operators in ET200S CPU from Siemens to control our vehicle. [3].
logistics, and also reduce production cycle time, the use of Our AGV communicates with the human machine
robots has an advantage for simplifying the operation of interface (HMI) via industrial wireless LAN withthe use
the working process. of PROFINET and PROFISAFE communication
Automated guided vehicle (AGV) is a type of standards. Direct connection of distributed control systems
unmanned mobile vehicle designed primarily to carry through industrial Ethernet can be easily implemented via
material, tow objects behind them in trailers and also PROFINET. This provides rapid exchange of data
transport individuals. AGVs are commonly used in between peripherals and control system as well as a very
manufacturing plants, warehouses, distribution centers and good diagnostic capabilities [4].
terminals [1,2,8].
For navigation AGVs mostly use signal paths, lane
paths or signal beacons. There are several main sensors 2. Description of Hardware Solution
that AGVs use for navigation, for example optical sensors,
magnetic sensors, laser scanner and camera. Modern AGV 2.1. DC Motor
systems differ from the classic ones, instead of using fixed
paths many modern AGVs are free-ranging [7]. It means To drive our vehicle, we decided to choose DC motors.
their preferred tracks are software programmed, and can The motors are controlled by pulse width modulation
be changed relatively easy when new stations or flows are (PWM). The requirements for DC Motor are following:
added [2].When moving vehicles it is necessary to ensure  supply voltage 24V
the safety of the environment, personnel and the vehicle  compact design with high performance – carrying
itself. The safety is ensured by the operation of sensors capacity m=10 kg, 5kg per one DC motor.
that detect obstacles and impending danger in their path.  long lifetime, low speed – durable gear unit with
The most commonly used automation tool in the steel gear wheels
automation industry currently is programmable logic  sensing of rotation speed – shaft mounted encoder
344 American Journal of Mechanical Engineering

Based on above mentioned criteriawe chose brushed with 24 V amplitude generated by 2PULSE module. We
DC Motor Micromotors E192-2S.24.91 with planetary use PWM signals to control the speed of wheel rotation. In
gear unit and shaft mounted two-phase Hall-effect encoder. H-bridge design we used MOSFET transistors as high
power components because of their high durability during
high current flows and lowerdrain-source resistance in
closed statein contrary to the bipolar transistors. For the
upper half of H-bridge we used P-channel power
MOSFET transistors IRF4905 and for lower N-channel
power MOSFET transistors IRF3205. The logical part of
H-bridge that evaluates the direction of rotation,
comprisesTTL logic circuits 74HCT08quad 2-input AND
gate and the 74HCT04 hexinverter. The principal
Figure 1. DC Micromotors E192-2S.24.91 schematics of connected TTL logic circuits to H-bridge is
shown on Figure 4.
The principle of Hall-effect encoder is based on output
voltage change of sensor in response to a change of
magnetic field. The magnetic field is changed by rotation
of shaft mounted permanent magnet. The magnetic field is
sensed by two Hall-effect sensors TLE 7805L which are
inthe phase of 90 degrees. The sensors produce 3 impulses
for a motor turn. The gear ratio of planetary gear unit is
i=91,66:1 and therefore we get 275 impulses for output
shaft turn.

Figure 4. TLE 7805L output connection schematic

To limit voltage spikes we added two capacitors to

motor power supply C=4700µF. We also added capacitor
C=100 nF to limit high frequency noise from the brushed
DC motors. The power supply part of motor driver board
Figure 2. Connector cabling of the quadrature encoder performance is designed to adjust battery voltage U=24V to TTL logic
demands. We used power regulator LM7805 which
The direction of rotation of the quadrature encoder stabilizes battery voltage to U=5V. The motor driver PCB
depends on output phase sequence (shifted by 90 degrees). is shown in the following figure.
The outputs of both TLE 7805L sensors are connected
with open collector and therefore appropriate pull-up
resistor is necessary. This resistor is used to provide stable
logic value 1 when the transistor is closed.The pull-up
resistor is connected between TLE 7805L sensor output
and supply voltage. The logic 1 level depends on supply
voltage level.

Figure 5. Motor driver PCB

2.3. Complete AGV Construction

Figure 3. TLE 7805L output connection schematic

2.2. Motor Driver Design

Our main task is to control direction and rotational
speed of wheels. In our case we use signals directing
wheel rotation with 24V amplitude generated by 4DO
digital output module, which is connected to PLC ET200S,
Figure 6. AGV model
so it is necessary to transform directioning signals to the
TTL logic level first. We also transform PWM signals Our AGV consists of four main parts.
 American Journal of Mechanical Engineering 345

2.3.1. The First - control System Part motors. At maximum performance AGV is capable of
The main part is modular decentralized periphery performing for 6 hours.
SIMATIC ET200S with integrated CPU. Our used The complete AGV construction is shownin the
configuration comprises following parts: following figure.
 CPU IM 151-8(F) PN/DP,
 Power module PM-E DC24. 48V
 Digital input module 4DI DC24V HF
 2x Counter module 1 COUNT 24V/100 kHz
 2x Digital output module 4DO DC24V/0,5A HF
 PWM module 2 PULSE
 Fail-safe 4 output digital module 4F-DO DC24V/2A
 Fail-safe 4/8 input digital module 4/8F-DI DC24V.
The PM-E DC24..48V power module provides the
supply voltage for all the electronic modules in the voltage
group. The 1 COUNT counter modules count both
quadrature encoder impulses and evaluate the rotational
speed of motors. For control of direction both motors
digital output signal of the 4DO digital output module is
used. The 2 PULSE PWM module controls rotational
speed of both motors by pulse width modulation. The
4/8F-DI fail-safe digital input module processes signals
generated from four microswitches installed on safety
bumper. Figure 7. Block schematic of AGV model

2.3.2. The Second - power-sensor Part

AGV model part consists of following parts:
3. Control Program
 2x brushed DC motor Micromotors E192-2S.24.91 Control program was programed in LAD, FBD and
 2x quadrature encoders with TLE 7805L sensors STL programming languages. It was developed in
 Motor driver DPS (2 x H-bridge) engineering system Step 7. Main cyclic block OB1 was
 4x microswitch ZIPPY VMN-10H-03B0-B-Z used in the program. Next, OB100 warm reset block,
Our AGV model power and sensor part uses differential which is initialized after start of PLC makes initialization
drive chassis. Geared motor shafts are connected directly operations, setting of PI controller coefficients and reset of
to driven wheels and stability is ensured by supporting variables. The next used block is OB35 periodic interrupt
omnidirectional wheel. The motor driver evaluates signals block for PI controllers with 10ms period of execution.
from the control system part and determines each motor Since we use the combination of safety PLC, mobile panel
performance and direction of rotation of each wheel. The with emergency stop and PROFISAFE profile, micro-
rotational speed of both motors is sensed by quadrature switches, our program implements safety program, too.
encoders. The Hall-effect sensors TLE7805 generate This part handles with immediate stop of vehicle in a case
rectangular impulses with amplitude of 24V. To stop of accident, lost connection between panel and PLC or
AGV in case of collision we used two safety bumpers after pressing the safety button. OB34 block is used for
which are connected to four microswitches ZIPPY, which safety part of the program, because OB35 block has very
in case of collision switch on automatically. The vehicle low period of interruptions for providing the safety
stops after assessing the signals by 4/8F-DI fail-safe function.
module. As the first, we introduce function blocks of
organization block OB1. The main goal of FB1
2.3.3. The Third – communication Part
“pulse_start” and its data block DB1 “2PULSE” is PWM
Communication part consists of client module controlling. This control program processes values of 2
SCALANCE W747-1RR. This module estabilishes PULSE module and sending level of PWM into output
wireless communication between the vehicle and human addresses. Blocks FB7 “countL” and FB8 “countR” are
machine interface HMI in IWLAN network using used for measuring of both motors velocities. FB5
PROFINET communication protocol. This module has function block “Control_of_ motors” implements control
one radio range which enables operation in 2,4 GHz or algorithm for differential drive chassis. Inputs for this
5GHz frequency range. Furthermore the module also block are tangential velocity of central point in percent
supports Rapid Roaming function. The Rapid Roaming and radius of vehicle in centimeters. FB5 block also
function enables the moving client modules to switch consists of other functional blocks, which process given
between different access points and ensures interruption- functions or adjustment. FB2 block “Calculation of
free transmission of the wireless signals wheels velocities”, as it is clear from the heading, counts
velocities of wheels and adjustment of input range
2.3.4. The Fourth – power Supply of AGV velocities of central point. The input is in percent and the
We used two sealed lead acid batteries Long WP1236W. limit is from -100% to 100%. During the design of FB5
These batteries provide supply voltage 12V with capacity block program we had to describe differential motor
of 9Ah. They are connected into series, so we got supply chassis. Simple design of differential chassis is shown on
voltage 24V necessary to supply PLC, motor driver and next figure.
346 American Journal of Mechanical Engineering

Function block FB3 “velocity sat” is used if the central

point velocity is vT= 100 % and turning radius is for
example R =1000 cm, desired left wheel velocity is bigger
than 100% and it is impossible to reach it. In this case the
program will change central point velocity for reachable
value for both wheels. In this case we use following
equations.
If v Lsp > 100 and v Rsp < 100 then
v Rsp (8)
= =
v Lsat 100v Rsat v Lsat
Figure 8. Description of differential drive v Ls
From figure we can extrapolate these equations:
If v Lsp < −100 a v Rsp > −100 then
L vR + vL
R= (1) v Rsp (9)
2 vR − vL v Lsat =
−100 v Rsat = v Lsat
v Lsp
vL + vR
vT = (2) If v Rsp > 100 a v Lsp < 100 then
2
v −v v Lsp (10)
ωP = R L (3) = =
v Rsat 100 v Lsat v Rsat
L v Rsp
After deriving velocities vL and vR from (2) and If v Rsp < −100 a v Lsp > −100 then
embedding them into equation (1) we get final equations
for velocities of left and right wheel with all known v Lsp (11)
variables and constants. v Rsat =
−100 v Lsat = v Rsat
v Rsp
v L v L
vL =
vT − T vR =
vT + T (4) v Lsp − left wheel − setpoint speed
2R 2R
It is important to take into account the case when R=0. v Rsp − right wheel − setpoint speed
Zero turning radius means turning around the center of the
vehicle. This leads to dividing by zero in (4). We solved v Lsat − left wheel − satured speed
this problem by giving velocity of right and left wheel
according to central point velocity. For example, if we v Rsat − right wheel − satured speed
want positive central point velocity and turning radius The saturation of wheels velocities change the central
R=0, we must use positive central point velocity for the point velocity and new recalculation is needed.
left wheel and negative velocity for the right wheel. The
vehicle will turn clockwise. If we want the direct If ( v Rsat + v Lsat ) ! =
0 then
movement of the vehicle, the turning radius must be ( v + v Lsat ) (12)
infinite. In our program the limit of radius is R=9, 9e5 cm, vTsat = Rsat
higher values lead to direct movement. 2
Next important factor is to keep wheels velocity ratio in If ( v Rsat + v Lsat ) =
=
0 then vTsat =
v Lsat (13)
constant turning radius after changing vehicle velocity.
Accelerating or slowing down is realized by adding or Function block FB4 “Acceleration” is used for
subtracting the constant of acceleration. If the speed of increasing or decreasing the velocity by ramp curve. In
both motors is changed with same constant of acceleration, case of acceleration, the constant of acceleration is added
the turning radius is changed. This state is solved by to current velocity in every step of calculation. In case of
counting difference between desired and actual value of slowing down the constant is removed in every step. Each
speed for each wheel separately, by next equations: step is activated by “clock” bit. If the value exceeds limit,
Δv L vLdesired − vLactual
= the saturation is activated.
(5) Function block FB6 “absolute percentage direction”
Δv R vRdesired − vRactual
= makes absolute value from velocities of wheels, which
Next, we compare these values and count a new range from -100% to +100%, while the sign plus / minus
constant of acceleration CLa- left wheel and CRa – right is turned to logic value of output bits of 4DO module. If
wheel from Ca – default constant of acceleration. the sign is positive the logical value is 1(forward).
Negative sign means logical 0 (backward).
If Δv L ≥ Δv R then The FB9 “twist ctrl” function block. Since control
Δv R (6) wheel on Panel 277F IWLAN mobile panel hasn’t zero
=
CLa C=
a CRa ABS ( )Ca position, the software calibration of this position is
Δv L
performed after start. This block also solves the direction
If Δv L < Δv R then of control wheel rotation. Pulses are generated by twisting
of the control wheel. IB6 byte is used while the control
Δv L (7)
=
CRa C=
a CLa ABS ( )Ca wheel is turning clockwise and IB7 is used for
Δv R counterclockwise movement. After the start both bytes are
 American Journal of Mechanical Engineering 347

reset to zero. The value of impulses in bytes is always a 4. Communication between AGV and HMI
positive number; bytes IB6 and IB7 are changed by
rotation of the control wheel. The upper limit of impulses Vehicle communication is based on wireless network
is 256 and after overshoot there is zero again. Minimum IWLAN (IEEE 802.11i standard). The system uses two
and maximum position of the wheel poswheelis separate access points SCALANCE W788-2RR and
programmed from -40 to 40 pulses. As we change turning SCALANCE W788-1RR. Client device SCALANCE
radius R , individual movements like forward or turning to W747-1RR is placed on vehicle base. This device is
sides are described by following equations: connected to access point with the strongest signal using
If poswheel > 0 then Rapid Roaming function. CPU SIMATIC ET 200S device
includes 3 ports PROFINET switch, which provides
poswheel * −250 (14)
=R + 250 connection between the client module and PLC.
40
=
If pos wheel 0=
then R 1, 0e6 (15)

If poswheel > 0 then

poswheel * −250 (16)
=R − 250
40
This block also processes signals from mobile panel
MP 277F IWLAN, such as safety stop, normal run and
stop as well as radius and central point velocity variable
setting.
Measured transfer characteristic of motor, which is used
in our work is on Figure 9. It is clear that in the change of
motor power from 0 to 100%, the change of rotational
speed is nonlinear. Figure 11. Network infrastructure

The vehicle is controlled by touch panel SIMATIC

MOBILE PANEL 277F IWLAN Figure 1. This panel
consists of 8” color TFT display, 21 hardware buttons and
one control wheel. The panel is wirelessly connected to
one of the access points, which furthermore routes the
communication to the client module installed on the
vehicle.
The visualization for panel screen was designed in
WINCC Flexible program. The velocity and orientation of
vehicle are controlled by panel. The rotation of vehicle
can be controlled by rotation of wheel or by value directly
inserted into input field. The velocity can be set in three
ways: the velocity can be changed by a slider, minimal
Figure 9. Transfer characteristic of motor
and maximal values can be set by buttons or by entering
FB41 CONT_C ICONT block compensates this into input field. The vehicle starts after pressing “Start”
nonlinearity. FB41block consists of PID controller. We button. To stop the vehicle we use “Stop” button. In case
used only PI part in closed loop, derivation part is turned of collision it is possible to use “Emergency Stop” button
off. Constants of PI regulator are set experimentally. for fast stop of the vehicle.
Firstly, PI control ensures half velocity of motors in 50%
motor power. The controller also compensates the change
of the load. If the load is changed, the controller changes
the manipulated value. Controller tries to establish desired
velocity for vehicle.
The function of the program is shown in the following
figure.

Figure 12. SIMATIC mobile panel 277F IWLAN

5. Future Work
Currently we are working on other components of AGV.
Figure 10. Block schematic of SW solution The main focus is on sensory subsystem and realization of
348 American Journal of Mechanical Engineering

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