Behind the innovative products and solutions VisionNav showcased at Logis-Tech Tokyo 2021 (LTT 2021) is a driverless story of how the company helps its customers quickly upgrade intralogistics not even to the COVID pandemic.
“Even the pandemic has been going on for a year, it’s still quite difficult for manufacturers to adjust its internal logistics strategy within such a short amount of time.” Said Kiki Ren, Japan sales director of VisionNav, “To make intralogistics cost-efficient and labor-saving, without changing the existing processes, that is the core value of VisionNav Robotics.”
VisionNav new solutions at Logs-Tech Tokyo 2021
During the LTT, VisionNav and its partners have together presented unmanned intralogistics solution: Driverless Industrial Vehicles, AGFs (Autonomous Guided Forklifts) and AMRs (Automated Mobile Vehicles), and VisionNav RCS system (Robot Control System). The solution is suitable for automated materials handling and storage scenarios in manufacturing and logistic enterprises, mainly for three different operations:
1. Multi-Layer racks/goods stacking
Unmanned stacking is one of the most distinct applications from VisionNav for global market. Based on visual recognition technology and servo control technology, VisionNav’s AGF can stack more than 5 layers of the racks or goods, which was one of the most difficult operations for driverless forklifts to perform, helping customers reduce heavy physical labors.
Automated counterbalanced forklift
2. Operation with Narrow Aisle
VisionNav also showed its automated guided forklift with slim design called “slim forklift”. Its biggest feature is to remove all the driving position for manual operation to make it thinner. As a result, slim forklift can run within 2.0m narrow aisle for storage operations, helping companies to improve storage capacity by at least 30%. Slim forklift could be the best choice for cost-sensitive companies. The new model also attracted huge attention during the show.
SLIM series of automated guided forklift
3. “Goods to person” horizontal transportation
The perfect choice for "goods to person" operation must be AMR robots. VisionNav AMRs can reach ±10mm operation accuracy without auxiliary marks, together with its powerful system, which can schedule over 130 robots at the same time and dock with more than 5000 different devices, to meet different requirements in different scenarios.
AMR robot
VisionNav (website: www.visionnav.com, YouTube Channel: VNBOT) was founded in 2016 by a PhD team from The Chinese University of Hong Kong and The University of Tokyo. Now the company has completed its B round of 100 million Yuan by Lenovo Capital in 2020. The company is committed to applying artificial intelligence (AI), environmental perception, deep learning and servo control technologies to driverless industrial vehicles, helping companies to realize "machine replacing human" and improve logistics efficiency, storage capacity and digital management.
So far VisionNav had been deployed more than 50 large-scale projects in China, including many difficult application scenarios, such as unmanned storage for over 9.4 meters high, unmanned storage within only 2.0 meters aisle, unmanned truck loading and unloading， multi-layer racks stacking and so on.
Although pandemic outbreak is expected to have lasting influence to manufacturing industry this year, it also brings excellent opportunity for companies to improve intralogistics with new technology in the era of new normal.
