VisionNav Empowers Machinery Enterprise Upgrade Indoor and Outdoor Automated Logistics

Generally speaking, the large-scale equipment manufacturing enterprises usually own more than one stable and mature production line, and workshops, therefore, various transfer scenarios like indoor storage and transfer, and outdoor towing are linked with each other if you want to deploy automated guided vehicles to replace manual forklifts and improve the efficiency of factory logistics. At the same time, more than one AGV forklift are required to maintain the current layout of the warehouse.

Project Background
This customer is a large-scale equipment manufacturing enterprise with thousands of employees and specializes in the production of parts and components for other world-class companies. The core plan of this project is to dispatch multiple autonomous forklifts to work at the same time through the robot control system developed by VisionNav Robotics, so as to achieve smooth docking with all workshops and multiple product lines.

Project Difficulties

1. The factory covers a huge area. Multiple autonomous forklifts are required to operate simultaneously to keep the existing layout of the factory;

2. The project involves one factory, two workshops, and multiple production lines, covering indoor and outdoor transportation and docking with production line.

3. When the automated guided vehicle AGV operates outdoors, it needs to deal with uncertain factors such as bright light or dark light, temperature changes, etc.

Our Solutions
After a comprehensive evaluation of the customer's plant environment, workshop layout, production line transportation, and material specifications, VisionNav has provided the following flexible unmanned logistics solutions, as for software, we will adopt the core robot control system, and for the hardware, we will deploy several VNP15 counterbalance stacker AGV and VNQ60 autonomous tow tractors. At first, we should introduce visual navigation of autonomous forklifts, and partially change the on-site scenario to ensure the efficient operation of autonomous forklifts; At the same time, the robot control system will dock with the production line requirements and workshop information, make sure the simultaneous operation of autonomous forklifts, and realize the matching of logistics and information flow.

Autonomous Forklift Operation Process

Inbound Material Operation Process: When the material is stored in the finished product buffer area on the line side, the staff will send the material distribution task through the mobile APP, when the MES system receives the task order, it will dispatch the outdoor autonomous towing tractor to deliver the materials to the outdoor docking area, then the indoor counterbalance Stacker AGV forklift will pick up material from the lorry, and send them to the production line area when the above operation process completed, the staff will finally update the storage and goods status through the mobile APP.

Outbound Material Operation Process: The staff will send the outbound task through the mobile APP or tablet. When the MES system receives the task, it will send the command to the counterbalance stacker AGV forklift to pick up the material from the finished product buffer area at the line side and transport it to the outdoor docking area. The outdoor tractor is on standby in the docking area, at the same time, the indoor counterbalance stacker AGV forklift can directly transport the materials to the lorry of the outdoor tractor. At last, the tractor transports the material to the warehouse for unloading and discharging. When the process is over, the staff will send the "unloading complete" signal through the mobile APP or tablet, and the system can dispatch the tractor to return to the docking area on standby, or to carry out the next round of tasks.
 

Highlight of Autonomous Forklifts

VNP15 counterbalance stacker AGV forklift adopts the leading visual SLAM positioning technology and can realize the precise positioning of autonomous forklifts in the natural environment, can achieve multi-vehicle and cross-scenario scheduling through the self-developed robot control system, It can also seamlessly integrate with MES, WMS, ERP, and other systems and automation equipment to complete the flexible unmanned transfer, truck loading and unloading, and inbound and outbound operations of various types of materials. 

VNQ60 autonomous towing tractor adopts mixed navigation and positioning technology, which can achieve precise positioning in natural environment. It is widely used in indoor and outdoor long-distance material handling scenarios, with no need to change the current environment or the existing operation processes, and can realize indoor and outdoor large-tonnage material traction.