Warehouse Automation"How Simulation Drove the Battery Design and Charging Strategy for an AGV"

Long story short

Our client was designing a shuttle—an automated guided vehicle zipping through warehouse racks to move goods. Cool, right? But it’s only cool if it works all day without running out of juice. They needed help figuring out the best shutlle architecture, battery layout and charging plan. We modeled it all in simulation using Simcenter Amesim, ran digital test drives, and gave them the confidence to move forward with the right setup.

“You don’t need a prototype to know if your battery strategy works. With a good model, you can test everything from charging time to layout fit—on your laptop. ⚙️🏆”
Veniamin Afanasov, Simulation Engineer at CTRL engineering

The Challenge: Balancing Accuracy, Throughput, and Control

Designing a automated mobile robot that runs all day sounds great—until you realize the battery can’t be too big (not enough space), can’t charge too slow (not enough time), and can’t overheat (not enough airflow). It’s a tight balancing act. Add in stop-start cycles, changing payloads, and a tight operating window, and you’ve got yourself a proper design headache.

Our Approach: Modeling the Invisible, Simulating the Future

So we built a digital twin of the shuttle, a complete simulation model that included everything from motors and drives to battery and control logic. We ran the shuttle through virtual workdays, tested different charging profiles (fast? slow? mix?), and played with different battery capacities. Every scenario showed us something: which designs had energy left in the tank, which ran hot, which charged in time—and which didn’t. No guesswork, just physics.

Results: Risk reduced, clarity increased

With this insight, the client picked a smart combo of battery size and charging strategy that fit the form factor and made it through the shift without needing a recharge break. Bonus: the simulation became a tool they could reuse for other shuttle versions down the line.

Why it matters to you? Simulate First, Save Later

Whether you’re building robots or machines that move, lift, or work all day—you can’t afford surprises. System simulation gives you the “try-before-you-build” advantage. At CTRL Engineering, we help you test your ideas in the digital world so they succeed in the real one.