VisionNav Robotics launched one of their most revolutionary products, VNE20 series automated guided counterbalanced truck. The new product can work indoor and outdoor, and do the truck loading and unloading in loading bay. It can also be used in in all different applications and scenarios.
R&D Background
In the past five years, with experiences from 100 projects and over 500 proposed solutions, VisionNav team realized that industrial driverless vehicle will not have large-scale application unless we can find solutions to solve the most complicated problems such as truck loading and unloading, put away and retrieval from high level racks, pallet stacking, stillage cage staking, etc. The difficulties always come from the complicated and volatile surrounding environment (man-human share paths, disordered placement, non-standard products, variety types of trucks, etc.)
For customers, the only way to know whether industrial driverless vehicles are workable (completely replacing manual trucks) is its peak working efficiency compared to manual trucks in c complicated and volatile surrounding environments. That is, without sacrificing safety and stability, “automated” perception (information acquisition) and motion control (action execution) capabilities shall be infinitely close to "manual".
At the end of 2018, VisionNav Robotics kicked off the research and development of VNE20 series. It took 10 doctors nearly three years to develop VNE20 product with strong sense and motion control ability by mixing self-developed 3D laser + visual perception technology, multi-axis real-time motion planning technology and high-precision visual servo control technology. With maximum running speed of 3.0m/s, multi-axis motion, accurate and continuous fork movement, the peak working efficiency of VNE20 can compare to manual truck in complex and changeable environment.
3D Laser + Visual Perception, Visual Servo Control for Better Safety and Efficiency
In forward direction, we use 3D laser + visual perception to greatly increase the perception distance and field of view. The maximum running speed of VNE20 can achive 3.0m/s while the operation is 100% safe. In the meanwhile, with in-depth learning and classification of obstacle targets, it can realize real-time judgment and auto detouring.
In the fork direction, we use 3D laser + vision to generate observations of the target objects and available space for pick and place, which can optimize real-time 6-DOF motion of the forklift AGV, as well as feedback results to visual server controller. These are to realize smooth movement of multi-axis combinations, making sure the accurate and efficient execution of the fork moving during loading and unloading, picking and placing, stacking and destacking, etc.
Equipped with Various Attachments to Standard Truck to Solve Non-Standard Issues
There are various attachments for VNE20 series standard products, such as side shifter, adjustable fork, multi-pallet handler, rotator, paper roll clamp, pipe winder, etc. We have standard control module configured for each type of attachments to meet different requirements for materials handling and transportation in different industries, such as pallets, cages, soft bags, paper rolls, and turnover boxes.
Stronger ground adaptability to cope with loading bay and outdoor working conditions
VNE20 is equipped with 450mm hard-wearing solid rubber wheels to have better obstacle surmounting ability, climbing maximum 13% degree slope, passing over maximum 50mm width grooves and running up maximum 30mm height steps. Now it can easily work in loading bay and outdoor for high-speed, heavy-loaded working conditions.
Starting with Truck loading and Unloading in Loading Bay to Cover All Scenarios
What are the key design of VNE20 series product launched by VisionNav Robotics?
Yang Jianhui, Product Director of VisionNav Robotics, said that during the R&D process, the main focus is on the AGV working ability in complex and changeable surrounding environment, including indoor positioning ability under changing lighting, 3D environment perception ability, accurate and efficient visual servo control ability, and water/dust-proof ability. “Truck loading and unloading operation accounts for more than 50% of the manual truck operations in warehousing logistics, which is the main target application place for VNE20. However, the working condition is highly complicated, not only because the variety of the truck types, parked vehicles everywhere, but also the diverse shapes of the material for loading and unloading, which requires our products to have very strong perception ability. In the meanwhile, truck loading and unloading requires highest peak efficiency in all scenarios, therefore it is also very important to achieve efficient motion by motion optimization and visual servo control.
VNE20 series products also use high-performance hardware, software and configuration from driverless cars to solve technical problems for complex scenarios such as truck loading and unloading, helping to build a solid foundation to realize large-scale application of industrial driverless vehicles in whole scenarios.
About VisionNav Robotics
VisionNav Robotics（www.visionnav.com), a global leader in industrial driverless vehicles, is committed to empower vehicles with technology and promote flexible unmanned application in logistics. VisionNav Robotics provides industrial driverless vehicle products and flexible unmanned logistics solutions for manufacturing and warehousing logistics. At present, it has developed and produced a variety of unmanned forklifts and tractors, breaking through rigid demand scenarios such as 9.4m high access, 2.0m narrow channel access, driverless loading and unloading vehicles and multi-layer mobile frame stacking, which are widely used in automobile manufacturing, tire manufacturing, transportation, food, petrochemical, e-commerce logistics, third party logistics, pharmaceutical and other fields.
