The CEO of BlueBotics, Dr. Nicola Tomatis, explains why vehicle manufacturers, such as forklift producers, should consider automating their vehicles with autonomous navigation technology, and what to consider when starting this work. Learn more: [ Ссылка ]
0:00 Intro
0:12 Why should a vehicle producer consider automating their product portfolio?
0:34 In what applications are automated guided vehicles (AGVs) used?
1:14 What types of AGV navigation technology exist?
2:20 What is natural feature navigation?
2:33 What types of application does natural feature navigation suit?
2:56 How useful is obstacle avoidance in industrial settings?
4:44 What are your tips for successful vehicle automation?
__________________________________________________________
My name is Nicola Tomatis, and I’m the CEO of BlueBotics.
The market for vehicle producers is today moving fast. While most of the material handling is still manual, in reality, today there is a clear trend toward automation. On one side, the market is still more manual, but someone has to think about automating the vehicles for the future.
Automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) started being used in the automotive industry, for the production of cars, and in pallet handling. Basically, until twenty years ago, these were the only two applications. In the last twenty years, a lot has been growing and changing. First of all, logistics took a lot of space, especially when combined with e-commerce. Even other applications outside the automotive were gaining traction, and are still gaining traction, like production and electronics, but also plastic, metal, and food, which are gaining more and more importance in the AGV market.
The navigation solution to move around this kind of vehicle started in the 70s with the line following. This is about following a line on the floor, which can be an inductive wire, a painted line, or a magnetic tape. A big revolution came in the 1990s when triangulation was born. Triangulation is about using a laser on top to measure reflectors on the walls. The big difference between these two kinds of technologies is that the first one was very simple and robust, but very heavy to put in place and to maintain. Triangulation brought a simpler installation, but especially much easier maintenance. Finally, let’s say between 2000 and 2010, natural feature navigation came to the market. Natural feature relies more on the environment and made it much easier to install and maintain, and brought to the market much more flexibility in the use of AGVs.
Natural feature navigation is about using structures or features in the environment in order to localize and know where the vehicle is.
If a supplier can provide to the market a very accurate and robust natural feature navigation system, this type of technology can be used for any kind of application. Of course, it’s not so easy because the environment changes a lot, but providing accuracy and robustness allows us to automate any kind of application.
As an end customer, when you install vehicles to automate your production, manufacturing, warehousing, etc., you of course care about efficiency. It’s important to understand that technology driving the vehicle has an important impact on efficiency. It’s important to pick the right vehicle supplier with the right technology to bring a lot of value to the automation you do at your site. The second point is probably flexibility. This is already an advantage to commissioning and installation, which is short and simple, but it’s even more important to be able to adapt over the years to the operation as it probably changes over and over. You need enough technology that allows enough flexibility in order to do that. Finally, and it may be naïve, but you better make sure the vehicle supplier provides a vehicle with technology that really works in a very robust way 24/7.
For vehicle suppliers, when they automate their vehicles, if we have to define three key aspects that are important for success, I would say the first is simple commissioning. In a very simplistic way, one says automation is 30% component cost and 70% integration cost. If a vehicle supplier wants to be competitive, you better reduce the cost of the 70%. This is also key to scaling up vehicles on the market. A second key point is you better make sure the technology is robust when the vehicle is in operation. Having a lot of new technology on the market, it’s good on one side because it brings innovation but customers need to make sure it is a mature solution that can do the job when in operation. Finally, choosing a technology supplier means you will probably stay with them for a certain time, so it’s a big investment, so make sure their support is good when you need it.
...
Ещё видео!