In front of the assessment committee (Prof. Stjepan Bogdan, Prof. Zdenko Kovačić, and Prof. Mladen Crneković), LARICS PhD student Ivica Draganjac, mentored by Prof. Kovačić, successfully presented and defended the topic of his doctoral dissertation titled „Decentralized Control of Free Ranging Automated Guided Vehicles in Automated Warehouses“. The aim of his doctoral dissertation is to extend the current state of the art practice in the Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) Systems area and eliminate limitations present in current systems due to the use of centralized control architectures and predefined paths of AGVs.
The contribution is intended to be achieved through the development and implementation of a stable and efficient decentralized control algorithm, which ensures the following characteristics: autonomy of AGVs in respect of path planning and motion coordination; scalability of system for an increasing number of AGVs; system flexibility in terms of dynamic allocation of transport tasks and changes in the working environment; and resistance to failures of AGVs.