It is so unbelievable to see the beautiful shining red forklift coming this way，the big but reliable AGF(Automated Guided Forklift) from VisionNav Robotics has loaded with heavy cargo and moves to the platform in a confident way, then it places the pallets accurately on the flying wing truck...
With the fast development of autonomous guided forklift technology in 2021, these difficult autonomous operation scenarios will be more and more common to be seen in the future.
It is strong proof of technical ability to break through from 0 to 1 in the “deep-water” application field, while the recognized results from 1 to N stand for the leading soft power. Mo Haiyang, the CPO of VisionNav Robotics, states that as a global leader of driverless industrial vehicles, VisionNav Robotics has captured the“deep-water” application field step by step in the past years, and large area coverage of applications have achieved in 2021.
What Does“Deep-water”Mean?
Deng Xiaoping once said, “The reform of China is like crossing the river by touching the stones, it is fast to move forward when the stones are easy to touch at the shallow area, but it is difficult and dangerous to develop when you are hard to feel the stones in the deep-water area!”
No matter how intelligent the device is in the lab, it will be affected by various unpredicted situations and fail to control once deployed in real work. The driverless AGF(Automated Guided Forklift) is one of the most basic, most widely used, and most complicated sorts of robots in the logistics industry, with the growing demand for AGF(Automated Guided Forklift) from the companies, the application scenarios of AGF(Automated Guided Forklift) has upgraded from the basic horizontal transportation, High-location warehousing to truck loading and unloading, the technology level has also improved from simple active navigation and positioning to precise operation, fast working efficiency and strong adaptability to complex scenarios.
At present, the AGF(Automated Guided Forklift) vehicles can replace most of the driver forklift in the regular application fields, These scenarios are not complicated, and the cargo is relatively in a standard format. However, the AGF(Automated Guided Forklift) have to deal with lots of changeable situations in the deep-water application situations, for example, people-vehicle mixed on-site, ragged cargo, nonstandard cargo, and various types of trucks, all the situations mentioned above are the most difficult problem in AGF(Automated Guided Forklift) research and development.
Fruits In The “Deep-water”Application Research
1. 8 Series of AGF(Automated Guided Forklift) For Various Non-standard Applications
Every year, VisionNav Robotics spends time producing some AGF(Automated Guided Forklift) for special usage applications, and now we have 8 series of AGF(Automated Guided Forklift) and there are 23 kinds of AGF(Automated Guided Forklift) vehicles in all. These products can realize automatic path planning, obstacle detection, and have the ability to avoid the obstacle to some degree. They are equipped with many tools like side shifter, fork positioner, Multi pallet carrier, spinner, paper roll clamp, and hose reel, which can be applied for pallet, material cage, soft package, paper roll, and circulation box, and all of these tools can be satisfied with most hardware needs.
2. Capture“Deep-water” Applications Scenes
In order to break the application obstacle in the “deep-water” fields, VisionNav Robotics has developed many new unprecedented innovations, for example, our BrightEye System that can track the cargo and realize safety forecast based on deep learning image identification technology, our auto environmental sense module based on 5G IoT, our accurate stacking module based on high-precision control, our robot control system that can be compatible with more than 3,000 systems and automatic devices. Now, VisionNav Robotics has successfully made progress in some “deep-water” application scenes including unmanned loading and unloading truck, human-vehicle mixed on-site, 9.4m material storage, 2m narrow aisles transmitting, more than 6-layer mobile material stacking, and VisionNav Robotics has decided to step deeper into this deep-water application fields in 2021.
Overview In Deep-water Applications
So far, VisionNav Robotics has landed more than 300 unmanned forklift projects at home and abroad, nearly 100 of them are large-scale benchmark projects. The successful applications of these projects help the customers achieve the matching of information flow and their logistics, Providing system support for customers’ scientific, smart, and unmanned management, The average efficiency has increased more than 30%. It is reported that in 2021, VisionNav Robotics is leading the industry, covering a large area of unmanned logistics projects in deep-water application areas.
Case One: Auto Parts Industry---More Than 6-Layer Stacking Application
The project is for a Sino-foreign joint automobile manufacturing enterprise. The vehicle models manufactured by this company have a market share of up to 18% in the automobile industry. In 2021, the counterbalanced stacker forklift VNP15 AGF(Automated Guided Forklift) from VisionNav Robotics was introduced to solve the problem of low storage capacity utilization.
Project Background
This auto parts factory is loading parts and components with storage cages, which have high requirements on the load capacity and operation accuracy of transportation vehicles. Before the unmanned forklifts were introduced, this company has to sort and transfer parts and components manually among the production line, inspection warehouse, and WFP, and the work efficiency is very low. In addition, in order to ensure the product quality of accessories (gearboxes), this company uses standard storage cages to load according to the traditional way, and the result is only two layers can be placed, which makes the space utilization very low.
Project Solution
In response to this problem, VisionNav Robotics decides to reduce the height of the storage cage through a customized method and introduces a counterweight unmanned forklift VNP15 for precise stacking, achieving the stacking goal of 6-layer storage cages, and the inventory capacity rate has increased by three times than before.
Highlight One, 6-Laye Precise Stacking
"Stacked by the bracket feet of the 4 storage cages, as long as one of the fulcrums is not stacked well, the storage cage will fall down, which demands very high requirements for the perception, accuracy, stability, and other functions of the forklift." The engineer said on-site, The unmanned forklifts from VisionNav Robotics integrate self-developed "3D laser + vision" navigation and perception technology, multi-axis real-time motion planning, and high-precision visual servo control technology, with a global positioning accuracy of ±10mm and local operation accuracy of ±10mm. In the meantime, the forklifts are equipped with 3 folk arms, which can effectively ensure the stability when stacking.
Highlight Two, Stacking Multi layers of cages At High Efficiency
Through the seamless connection of the VisionNav Robotics robot control system and the customer's MES, WMS, ERP, and other systems, the vehicle is scheduled in the cloud by a method based on a combination of incremental mode, overall planning, and local conflict re-planning, which can carry multi-pallet material cages at one time according to the task, increasing the logistics efficiency by 2 times and providing the enterprise with a fast and general industrial vehicle coordination solution.
Project Result
Redefines the storage method of the WFP warehouse. The 6-layer material cage precise stacking technology increases the storage capacity rate by 3 times. The 24X7 hour alternate operation, flexible operation of multi-pallet cage loading and unloading one-time helps to achieve "manual replacement", reduces production costs and improves work efficiency, this perfectly meets the warehousing rhythm required by the customer and realizes full automatic and scientific management of the warehousing for this company.
Case Two, Tobacco Enterprise---Flying Wing Truck 4-layer Full Material Stacking Application
The cigarette factory has entered a period of rapid development. In order to realize the continuous, rapid, and healthy development and obey my country's industrial automation control system demand, the company has deployed the flexible internal logistics unmanned solution from VisionNav Robotics to solve the accuracy problems of internal logistics and high damage rate.
Project Background
Tobacco products are easily damaged during the handling process due to material reasons, so higher demand for safety, stability, and lower collisions during the transportation is required for forklifts. In order to truly realize unmanned logistics in the internal production line, VisionNav Robotics moves from indoor to outdoor and launches the first domestic outdoor gull-wing unmanned forklift loading and unloading solution. A complete unmanned logistics chain is formed from unloading, transshipment, and storage for this company.
Project Solution
After preliminary investigation and careful inspections, VisionNav Robotics believes that the difficulty of this project is that the accuracy of outdoor gull-wing truck parking is not standard, and the pallets on the truck are too close, so the traditional loading and unloading mode can easily fail to identify the location of the goods and report errors. The finished products are stored through the drive-in racking and 4-layer full material stacking. This scenario asks for a greater challenge to the loading capacity, perception ability, precision control, and safety protection ability of unmanned forklifts.
Highlight One, Outdoor Gull-wing Truck Loading And Unloading
According to situations of the Inconsistent parking accuracy of gull-wing trucks, the compact pallets, and the overboard of cargo, VisionNav Robotics deploys 5G network and visual environment monitoring technology, and uses the customized outdoor BrightEye system and plus the MEC edge computing method to detect the position and pose of the truck, generates a 3D loading plan, and to complete the loading and unloading of trucks in different positions. Through 3D fork-end perception and 3D positioning technology, the problem of compact pallets is handled from the end to ensure the stability and safety of the goods.
Highlight Two, Drive-in Rack Storage Location Monitor
After unloading the truck from the large counterbalanced AGV and move to the drive-in rack, the cargo pallet has a width of 1200mm, drive-in rack has a width of 1280mm, when carrying out loading and unloading in the drive-in rack, It is necessary to ensure high-precision when driving in by using intelligent visual perception technology and 3D perception positioning technology to observe and identify the shelves, and then planning an optimal path in real time based on the feedback data, and adaptive loading and unloading from the warehouse. At the same time, use the BrightEye System to detect the location situation in real time. With the help of big data and AI intelligent algorithms, the information will be shared to the user's warehouse management system and robot control system in real time, providing companies with storage location safety notice, and helping the unmanned operation of AGF(Automated Guided Forklift)s, patrol robots, and other intelligent devices. In addition, The BrightEye System also has an infrared detection function, which can still perform real-time detection tasks without lighting.
Hightlight Three, 4-Layer Full Material Stacking And Storage
Although the 4-layer stacking location style of full material can fully save space, in the case of 4X (single pallet weight), The carrying weight has reached an astonishing (XX) T. The transshipment in cages with a height of XX and weight of XX is the first case in the industry. After years of research and development, VisionNav Robotics has made breakthroughs in the 4 key technologies, they are high-precision and strong robust navigation technology, intelligent visual perception technology, high-precision servo control technology, and large-scale multi-level scheduling technology. Based on these fundamental technologies, we can now finally deal with deep-water applications successfully and perfectly.
Project Result
Through the combination of unmanned forklift system from VisionNav Robotics with WMS, WCS, MES, and other systems, the unmanned forklift is used to control and track the overall quality of the transfer, Loading and unloading of the finished product, it has finally realized the centralized control and coordination of the entire factory as well as intelligent decision-making and Intelligent logistics distribution.
Continuous Progress of Deep-water Application Scenes
There are also some projects like outdoor unmanned container loading and unloading truck scenes and unmanned truck paper roll lock loading and unloading scenes in the fourth quarter of this year. VisionNav Robotics has won some market share by relying on unique technical skills and unmanned logistics solutions and has launched many projects in fields such as automobile manufacturing, tires, food, petrochemicals, e-commerce logistics, third-party logistics, and pharmaceuticals, VisionNav Robotics is still leading in the field of the unmanned forklift.
About VisionNav Robotics
As a global leader enterprise in driverless industrial vehicles, since its establishment in 2016, VisionNav Robotics（www.visionnav.com) has focused on the research and development of unmanned industrial vehicles and unmanned logistics solutions, insisted on empowering industrial vehicles with vehicle-level unmanned driving technology, and promoted the flexible unmanned transformation of internal logistics for the enterprise. At present, VisionNav Robotics has developed 8 series of unmanned forklift products, and has completed the breakthrough in the whole process of rigid demand scenes, including 9.4m material storage, 2m narrow aisles transmitting, automated truck loading, 6-layer mobile material stacking. With unique technical backgrounds and excellent unmanned logistics solutions, VisionNav Robotics has achieved rapid growth, there are more than 150 successful projects in many fields such as automobile manufacturing, tires, food, petrochemicals, e-commerce logistics, third-party logistics, and pharmaceuticals. Among them, there are many benchmark cases from Fortune 500 companies.
VisionNav Robotics
Charles
info@visionnav.com
