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AGV and AMR fleet

Updated Oct 8, 2026
Shop Floor

AGV and AMR fleet

Connect your vehicles over VDA 5050, draw where they can drive, raise transport orders and choose who dispatches them.

Permissions: All fleet pages need the Shop Floor license feature and the DataMagik - Builder role: /shop-floor/fleet, /shop-floor/fleet/orders, /shop-floor/fleet/optimizer, /shop-floor/settings/plant-maps and /shop-floor/settings/facility. Connecting vehicles on the Tag map and Equipment and models pages, queuing AS/RS jobs and changing the Plex container-move switch also need the Shop Floor OT connectivity license feature. Turning Plex container moves on needs the Shop Floor OT write license as well.

How vehicles are connected

DataMagik talks to vehicles through VDA 5050, the open AGV/AMR interface (JSON over MQTT). The connector on your plant network reads every vehicle's state from the fleet's MQTT broker and sends it the transport orders it is given. To set up the connector itself, see PLC connectivity.

  1. On Tag map (/shop-floor/settings/tag-map), add an endpoint with Protocol set to VDA 5050 (fleet MQTT broker). The URL is the broker, for example mqtt://host:1883. Pin it to the one connector on that network. Fill in Topic prefix (interface name) and, if your vehicles use one, Map id the vehicles use.
  2. Add each AGV as equipment, then on Equipment and models (/shop-floor/settings/equipment) give it a model. A transport order is matched against the model: what it carries, how much, how wide it is, and which chargers fit it.
  3. On the same page, choose Make a VDA 5050 vehicle. Pick the Broker, enter Manufacturer (as it publishes) and Serial number (as it publishes), and optionally the vehicle's own name for each load and the Station type it expects (both from its factsheet). Choose Bind vehicle. This binds the vehicle's battery, position, state, order and action fields in one step.
  4. The connector must also allow the vehicle as a command target before it will send orders to it.

Fields bound from a vehicle are what the vehicle reports; they cannot be written. A vehicle is commanded only through transport orders. To stop commanding it, use Stop sending orders on the Equipment page.

Draw the facility graph

Routes, travel times and vehicle positions all come from the facility graph, drawn over a plant map. Open Facility graph (/shop-floor/settings/facility). If the site has no plant map yet, create one on Plant maps first.

  1. 1 · Plant map: choose the map, or upload a floor plan, CAD export or photo (PNG, JPG or SVG, up to 8 MB).
  2. 2 · Set the scale: click two points you know the distance between, such as the ends of a wall, and enter the Real distance from A to B in metres or feet. Recalibrating later changes lengths but never moves a line.
  3. 3 · Draw stations and lanes: use Add station (kinds Pickup, Drop, Charger, Park / queue), Add junction, Draw lane and Draw zone. A lane can be One-way, have a Speed limit (m/s) and a Widest vehicle allowed. A zone is either No-go (closes every lane through it) or Slow (caps their speed). A station can list the loads it Accepts, a Handling time (s), the equipment it Serves, and its Plex location.
  4. Choose Save, then use Check a route to see the quickest route for a Narrow, Standard or Wide vehicle.

VDA 5050 positions are metres on this map, so the graph must have a scale before vehicles can be placed or routed.

Fleet overview

Fleet (/shop-floor/fleet) shows where every AGV is and what it is doing, live. Pick the Plant map if the site has more than one.

  • Tiles count vehicles On a mission, Charging or queued and Idle, plus Orders waiting for a vehicle.
  • Live map draws each vehicle from its x and y (or pos_x and pos_y) signals over the facility graph.
  • Needs attention lists late orders, faulted vehicles, vehicles below 20% battery that are not charging, and vehicles with nothing heard lately.
  • Vehicles lists each vehicle's model, state, battery and current order. A connection chip shows Live, or that values may be old while it reconnects.

Transport orders

Transport orders (/shop-floor/fleet/orders) holds every move of a load between stations. Filter the list with Open, Delivered or Failed or cancelled.

  1. Under New transport order, choose the From station and To station, the Load (Container, Pallet, Cart or Tow), Priority, and optionally Quantity, Weight (kg) and Due.
  2. Optionally describe the load as Plex knows it: Master unit, Container serials, Container type and an RFID or barcode tag. A scan at pickup or drop that is not this tag stops the step as the wrong load.
  3. Under Vehicle, leave Let the dispatcher or optimizer choose, or pick a vehicle. A vehicle that cannot carry the load is marked cannot carry this load. Choose Create order.

Select an order to see its Timeline and move it on with Assign, Reassign, Take off vehicle, Mark picked up, Mark delivered, Mark failed or Cancel order. Failing or cancelling needs a reason. For a VDA 5050 vehicle, an assigned order is sent to it as a route from where it stands, a pick and a drop; progress comes from the vehicle's own action states, and an order taken away is cancelled on the vehicle.

Plex container moves is a per-site switch. When on, a delivered order moves its master unit or containers to the destination station's Plex location. It is off by default and never applies to orders delivered before it was switched on.

Caution: With Plex container moves on, deliveries write to Plex. Check each station's Plex location on the facility graph, spelled as Plex spells it, before switching it on.

AS/RS jobs

The Orders page also has an AS/RS jobs section, for an AS/RS whose job interface is described on the Equipment page. Choose the AS/RS, the Job (Retrieve, Store or Move), From bin, To bin and an optional Load, then Queue job. Jobs run one at a time per AS/RS and show Queued, Raised, Accepted, Working, Done, Failed or Cancelled.

Fleet optimizer

Fleet optimizer (/shop-floor/fleet/optimizer) decides which AGV takes which order. Under Who dispatches this site, choose:

  • The fleet's own dispatcher: the optimizer only watches and scores.
  • Advisory: it proposes assignments under Proposals waiting; a person chooses Accept or Reject.
  • Autonomous: it dispatches directly. If its heartbeat stops for the Watchdog (seconds) time (5 to 120), the fleet's own dispatcher takes over.

Set Route over this plant map; nothing is recorded until a plant map is chosen. Under What it weighs, slide Lateness of orders, Empty travel, Battery used and Keep assignments stable. Under Battery and energy rules, set the reserve, charge thresholds, energy use and Loaded factor. Then choose Save. Load, weight, lane width and enough energy to finish and reach a compatible charger are always enforced, never weighed, and a load already on board is never moved.

This shift, by who dispatched shows the last 8 hours by mode: On time, Empty travel, Utilisation, Charger occupancy, Delivered and Hours. Click a line in the Decision log to see why a vehicle got an order, or why an order waits, with every vehicle's case.

Related

Previous Writing back to Plex Next OEE and availability
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