Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMR) provide flexibility in organizing and scheduling transportation activities on a production floor. The use of AMRs to meet intra-logistic requirements in production units is increasing. Technological advancement in sensor systems along with research in Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM), path planning and obstacle avoidance algorithms has major contribution towards development of intelligent AMRs.

Customer requirements are changing both in terms of quantity and quality of products. Fixed automation systems show no or very limited feasibility to incorporate rapidly changing customer demands. In order to cater to customer needs while being competitive in the global market, manufacturers prefer production units that offer flexibility in operation. Reconfigurable, plug and produce manufacturing systems are gaining popularity in manufacturing industries. The plug and produce technology allow modification in both software and hardware level. New field devices can be added and existing ones can be modified to obtain the required product quality or throughput from a system. Due to advancement in software systems, networking and standardization of communication protocols the manufacturing industries are gradually progressing towards Industry 4.0 standards.

This thesis work focuses on developing a software solution to integrate AMRs with plug and produce manufacturing systems. As part of the research, an extensive literature study is performed to understand various features of a guidance control system, the existing software architectures and scheduling methods for Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS). The market survey highlights different communication protocols used in developing AMRs. A suitable software architecture called as AMR Guidance Control System (AGCS) is developed in Robot Operating System (ROS) framework. The report provides detailed explanation of various components of AGCS. The resulting software solution is tested and validated in a research environment. To conclude, the AGCS is a unique application with compatibility to Industry 4.0 communication protocols like OPC-UA, MQTT and REST. The developed software might be beneficial for manufacturing industries with variety in intra-logistic technological needs