Early AGVs mainly used DC brushless motors for cargo handling between two points, with relatively simple functions. With the advancement of technology, the development of the AGV industry, and the improvement of customer demand, the requirements for the functionality and customization of AGV cars are becoming higher and higher. AGV motors are also constantly being updated and upgraded, from DC brushless motors to DC brushless servo motors, each change is based on the continuous improvement of grassroots technology. In the AGV robot industry, especially in logistics and warehousing AGV cars, DC brushless and servo motors have already occupied the majority of the market. DC brushless motors and DC brushless servo motors have been adopted by most AGV enterprises due to their maintenance free, high efficiency, low operating temperature, low electromagnetic radiation, and long lifespan.

The DC brushless motor is controlled through Hall feedback, mainly based on speed control. For AGV cars with low accuracy and functional requirements, the control is relatively simple. A general brushless motor is based on six sets of codes generated by three Halls, such as 001101, to determine the rotor rotation position, and then control the current commutation of the winding. It is mainly used as a power output and does not require precise control of the rotation angle. At this time, Hall components are sufficient, such as the motor used in the earliest AGV cars for ordinary transportation between two points. Due to the lack of brushes and related interfaces, brushless motors are cleaner, less noisy, and in fact require no maintenance, resulting in a longer lifespan.

Servo motors, also known as executive motors, are used as executive components in automatic control systems to convert the received electrical signals into angular displacement or angular velocity output on the motor shaft. It is divided into two categories: DC and AC servo motors, and its main feature is that there is no self rotation phenomenon when the signal voltage is zero, and the speed decreases uniformly with the increase of torque. For servo motors, it is necessary to accurately control the rotation angle. At this point, it is necessary to select encoders with different resolutions as position feedback signals according to the needs. The most common is the 2500 line incremental encoder, which is equivalent to the motor rotating one revolution and can emit 10000 pulse signals, thus achieving very precise control accuracy. Relatively speaking, the price of encoders is not on the same order of magnitude as Hall, and there is also a cost-effectiveness issue. The DC brushless servo motor (equipped with an encoder) can achieve precise control of speed and position through encoder feedback control, making it suitable for AGVs that require accurate positioning and have many additional functions.

Therefore, the choice of AGV drive motor depends on the application situation and control requirements of AGV.