EDUCATIONAL LINE-FOLLOWING ROBOT AS A MICRO-SCALE TESTBED FOR SUSTAINABLE INTRALOGISTICS AND GREEN WAREHOUSE PRACTICES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18623/rvd.v22.n7.4067Keywords:
Educational Robotics, Fuzzy Control, Line-Following Robot, Sustainable Warehousing, IntralogisticsAbstract
The transition toward sustainable warehousing and intralogistics is tightly coupled with the diffusion of automation technologies such as automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs). Yet, universities and vocational schools—especially in emerging economies—often lack accessible physical platforms that allow students to “touch” these ideas in a concrete, experimental way. This paper presents an educational line-following robot, originally conceived as a low-cost control and programming project, and reframes it as a micro-scale testbed for green warehouse practices and sustainable intralogistics. The platform uses a differential-drive mobile robot equipped with infrared line sensors and a Type-1 fuzzy logic controller implemented on Arduino. The perception–decision–actuation loop mirrors that of industrial AGVs, but at toy scale and at a fraction of the cost. We show how classical control performance metrics (tracking error, settling time, overshoot) can be reinterpreted as proxies for key performance indicators in sustainable warehousing—such as energy-efficient routing, smooth material handling, and congestion reduction in aisles. Building on recent work on green warehousing and sustainable intralogistics, we map the robot’s experimental scenarios to warehouse-level decisions (route selection, speed limits, stop policies) and show how simple line patterns can represent loading bays, storage zones, and safety buffers. The paper makes three contributions. First, it describes a reproducible hardware and fuzzy-control architecture aligned with widely available components and open-source tools. Second, it proposes a didactic mapping from robot-level signals to green warehouse key indicators, allowing instructors to design experiments that speak directly to sustainability and environmental law concerns, including SDG-oriented governance debates. Third, it positions the platform as a bridge between engineering education and regulatory discussions in environmental law and sustainable development, thereby enabling students in both fields to co-design and test “micro-regulations” for safe, low-impact intralogistics.
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