The world's largest materials handler - the U.S. Postal Service - is testing ways to integrate state-of-the-art, materials handling technologies with existing mail automation technologies.

At the USPS Processing & Distribution Center in Ft. Meyers, Fla., for example, automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) are a key component 'that reduces the manual pulling and pushing of rolling containers and pallets full of mail,' says Roger McLarry, operations support specialist. The laser-guided AGVs 'are an integral part of our success.'

Use of AGVs also reduces the need to have forklifts and tow motor vehicles working in the building around the sorting areas for small parcels and flats, McLarry adds.

The vehicles 'are a major part of our automated container transporter system,' he says. The AGVs move rolling containers and wire cages that, when full, can weigh as much as 1,200 pounds. Each AGV can pull as many as three containers at one time. Forklift-type AGVs also move pallets.

Advanced laser guidance and traffic control systems, he adds, 'provide safe, efficient, and timely movement of rolling containers. The laser guidance technology gives us the flexibility to rearrange the processing operations as new (handling) systems are added. We simply change the targets on the walls and reprogram the AGV path in the host computer.'

The AGV system is set up so that postal employees, by pushing 'call buttons,' can electronically signal the need for a pickup or dropoff of a container by an AGV. 'The control system will send the closest AGV to the station to carry out the task,' says McLarry.