Systems and methods for generating a mission for a self-driving material-transport vehicle are presented. The system comprises at least one self-driving material-transport vehicle, at least one programmable logic controller, at least one field instrument, and at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium in communication with at least one processor. An application signal is received from the programmable logic controller based on an activation signal from the field instrument. A mission is generated by the application signal and a mission template, and the mission is transmitted to the self-driving material-transport vehicle. In some cases, the application signal may be based on OPC-UA, and the mission and/or mission template may be based on a REST protocol.