A gateway for automated guided vehicles

Users are often faced with the challenge that, in addition to the actual AGVs, their connection to other components, such as higher-level ERP systems, universal fleet managers or peripheral devices (fire alarm systems or sensors), must be established within an automated guided vehicle system.

As each system or device often uses its own communication language, processing and translating it to other components of the overall system is complex.

Own gateway

To help customers meet this challenge, K.Hartwall has launched its own A-Gate software, taking its A-Mate series of automated guided vehicles to a whole new level.

With the help of A-Gate, users can access the following functionalities, among others:

-Interaction with various software components - from ERP systems and (universal) fleet managers to all types of peripheral devices - to monitor statuses

-Simple and intuitive creation and execution of transport requests

-Centralized maintenance management for the existing A-Mate fleet

"Our A-Gate offers our customers an ideal addition to the holistic integration of automated guided vehicle systems by bundling numerous functionalities in an intuitive and user-friendly virtual interface," adds Aaron Zimmerer, Product Owner AGV / AMR at K.Hartwall.

No separate IT infrastructure required

A-Gate is designed in such a way that no separate IT infrastructure in the form of servers or computers is required. The software installation based on "Docker" can therefore be carried out on the same IT infrastructure on which other software components for the AGV use case are operated. The only prerequisite for successful communication with any components involved in the process is a shared network.

"Communication protocols such as REST, TCP/IP or MQTT are supported so that numerous different hardware and software components can communicate reliably via our A-Gate," explains Sebastian Hellfeld, A-Gate product developer. "This gives our customers the opportunity to integrate a wide variety of components into the overall system via the A-Gate."

A simple and intuitive user interface helps customers to maintain an overview of all the components present in the overall system. In addition, drag-and-drop actions based on input or output signals from components can be created and executed without opening the software of the component involved.

In addition to access to a central document repository, the user interface is rounded off with an overview of the status of the A-Mate fleet. This not only displays current information about the respective status, but also information about the next upcoming maintenance, for example, and can be forwarded directly to K.Hartwall support if required.