Profiling Power Consumption in Low-Speed Autonomous Guided Vehicles

The increasing demand for automation has led to a rise in the use of low-speed Autonomous guided vehicles (AGVs). However, AGVs rely on batteries for their power source, which limits their operational time and affects their overall performance. To optimize their energy usage and enhance their battery life, it is crucial to understand the power consumption behavior of AGVs. This paper presents a comprehensive study on profiling power consumption in low-speed AGVs. The previous power consumption estimation models for AGVs were mostly based on physical formulas. We introduce a data-driven power consumption estimation model for each of the main components of the AGV, including the chassis, computing platform, sensors and communication devices. By conducting three actual driving tests, we show that the MAPE in estimating instantaneous power is 4.8%, a significant 8.1% improvement compared to using a physical model. Moreover, the MAPE for energy consumption is only 1.5%, which is 6.6% better than the physical model. To demonstrate the utility of our power consumption estimation models, we conduct two case studies – one is energy-efficient path planning and the other is energy-efficient perception task interval adjustment. This study demonstrates that integrating the power consumption estimation model into path planning reduces energy consumption by over 12%. Additionally, adjusting detection interval lowers computational energy consumption by 10.1%.