Let Smart Mobile Robots Lead Your Internal Logistics | ZTEC

What Are Mobile Robots?

A mobile robot is a type of robot that can understand and move through its environment independently, or through tracks or predefined paths. 

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An autonomous guided vehicle, or AGV for short, is a type of vehicle that can move around a factory or warehouse carrying things from one place to another.

In a large warehouse with strong logistic needs, Instead of people having to push carts or drive forklifts to move things around, you could have these AGVs doing the job. They can be programmed to pick up items from one spot and take them to another spot all on their own.

These AGVs are really handy in industries because they can help with tasks like transporting materials or products safely and efficiently. They can also work around the clock without needing breaks, making them quite useful in places where things need to keep moving smoothly all the time.

What are mobile robots used for?

These types of mobile robots help several industries optimizing their logistics, promoting the productivity cost-effectively. Some great examples are:

Manufacturing: In manufacturing plants, AGVs are commonly used to transport materials and components between different production stations. For example, they might carry raw materials to the assembly line or move finished products to the warehouse for shipping.

Warehousing and Distribution: In large warehouses and distribution centers, AGVs play a vital role in moving goods efficiently. They can navigate aisles and shelves to retrieve items for order fulfillment and then transport them to the packing area or loading docks.

Logistics and Transportation: AGVs are utilized in logistics and transportation operations to streamline processes such as loading and unloading cargo containers at ports or moving goods within airport terminals.

Healthcare: In hospitals and healthcare facilities, AGVs are used to transport medications, supplies, and equipment between different departments. They can help optimize workflows and reduce the time spent by staff on logistical tasks, allowing them to focus more on patient care.

Retail: AGVs are increasingly being adopted in retail settings to automate tasks such as restocking shelves and moving inventory within warehouses or stores. This automation helps retailers manage inventory more efficiently and improve overall operational productivity.

With the accelerated development of industrial automation and intelligent manufacturing, AGV (Automated Guided Vehicle) has become an important tool for enterprises to improve logistics efficiency and reduce labour costs. Whether in manufacturing, warehousing and logistics, or in e-commerce, automotive, pharmaceutical and other industries, AGV has been widely used. This article will take stock of the current use of AGV representative enterprises, and analysis of its application scenarios, to help readers gain a deeper understanding of AGV in different industries landing situation.

Ⅰ. What Is AGV (Automated Guided Vehicle)?

AGV (Automated Guided Vehicle), that is, an automatic guided vehicle, is the core technical equipment in the field of unmanned handling.

In the field of modern industry and logistics, AGV (Automated Guided Vehicle) has become a powerful assistant for many enterprises to improve production and operation efficiency with its high efficiency, precision, flexibility, etc. AGV is widely used in factories, warehouses and other places for material handling, product transfer, shelf docking and other tasks. In this article, we will discuss which companies are using AGVs and their application scenarios and effectiveness.

II. Global Representative Companies Using AGVs

1. AutomotiveManufacturing Industry

• ‍Toyota: Toyota has widely deployed AGVs in its global factories for general assembly, parts distribution and production line docking. The deep integration of its AGV system and lean production model has significantly improved the efficiency of material distribution.‍
• BMW: BMW uses laser-guided AGVs to achieve ‘flexible production’ in its German factories. AGVs collaborate with robots in the body assembly and assembly sections, and support the mixed-line production of multiple models.‍
• Tesla: The Gigafactory deploys more than 1,000 AGVs to build a full-process automatic material flow system to support its large-scale production goal.

2. E-commerce and Retail Industry

• ‍Amazon: Through the acquisition of Kiva Systems, Amazon independently developed warehouse AGV robots (now called Amazon Robotics). These AGVs are widely used in the warehouse picking system, subverting the ‘people looking for goods’ model and increasing order processing speed by 40 %+.‍
• Alibaba: In China's intelligent logistics parks, Cainiao deploys a large number of AGVs to realise the ‘separation of people and goods’, and to automatically complete the tasks of handling, picking and parcel collection in the warehouse.‍
• JD Logistics: The ‘Asia One’ intelligent warehouse cluster applies 2D code navigation AGVs (such as the ‘Wolf’ system) on a large scale to realise ‘goods-to-person’ picking, with efficiency increased by 3-5 times. The average number of steps taken by pickers per day has dropped by more than 70%.

3. 3C Electronics Manufacturing Industry

• ‍Foxconn: Foxconn deploys vision-guided AGV robots in its Shenzhen, Zhengzhou and other parks for material box transfer and production line docking, realising human-machine co-operation in production mode and avoiding the risk of artificial static electricity damage.‍
• Huawei: Huawei applies AGVs in its terminal manufacturing plants for machine distribution, test equipment docking, and warehousing flow to achieve highly automated lean logistics.‍
• Samsung and TSMC: Deploying cleanroom-level AGVs in semiconductor wafer factories to achieve the automatic transfer of silicon wafers and photomask cassettes in ultra-clean environments.

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Intelligent Warehousing Through Unmanned Forklift, Comprehensively Improving Efficiency and Space Utilisation

4. Pharmaceutical Industry

• ‍Roche: Roche's pharmaceutical plants in Switzerland and Germany use AGVs to transport raw materials and semi-finished products, effectively reducing the risk of cross-contamination and improving the efficiency of handling in clean environments.‍
• Sinopharm and SPH: AGVs are deployed between automated three-dimensional warehouses and production workshops to complete the unmanned transfer of raw materials and boxed preparations, with the whole process of temperature and humidity monitoring to strictly meet GMP specifications.

5. Logistics and Third Party Logistics (3PL) Industry

• ‍DHL: DHL deploys different types of AGVs and AMRs (Autonomous Mobile Robots), including handling, forklift and picking AGVs, in multiple intelligent logistics centres around the world to achieve efficient cargo flow.‍
• SF Express: SF applies self-developed AGV equipment for automatic sorting and dynamic scheduling within multiple intelligent transit yards, significantly improving the efficiency of express shipment processing.

6. Food and Beverage Industry

• ‍Mengniu and Yili: Use corrosion-resistant AGVs in the low-temperature filling workshop to complete the transport of raw milk cans and finished product boxes to avoid cross-contamination.‍
• Coca-Cola and Budweiser: Deploying an AGV system to connect the production line and palletising area, realising the automation of the whole process of empty bottles entering and full cases leaving the warehouse, and guaranteeing the uninterrupted operation of the high-speed production line.

Ⅲ. The Advantages of Using AGV Handling Robot

1. Reduce costs and increase efficiency: replace manual handling, reduce labour costs; 7x24 hours of operation, equipment utilization maximization.

2. Enhance quality and consistency: reduce human error, ensure process stability, and precision parts are handing safely.

3. Enhanced Flexibility: Programmable routes and tasks, rapid response to production changes (e.g. line changes, order fluctuations).

4. Ensure safety: Laser obstacle avoidance, emergency stop and other multiple protections to prevent collision accidents; high-risk environment work instead of manual.

5. Data-driven decision-making: The AGV system generates real-time operation data (path, efficiency, faults), providing a basis for process optimisation.

How AGV Material Handling Improves Efficiency? Benefits of AGV Material Handling in Warehouses

Ⅳ. The Application Trend of AGV Robots

1. Navigation technology upgrade: With SLAM navigation (natural navigation), to accelerate the popularity of reducing environmental transformation dependence.

2. AI depth empowerment: multi-machine coordinated scheduling, dynamic path planning, and autonomous obstacle avoidance capability are significantly enhanced.

bAGV + robotic arm combination, to achieve the integration of ‘mobile + operation’, to improve the overall production and logistics efficiency.

4. Industry customisation deepening: different enterprises have different functional requirements for AGV, prompting AGV manufacturers to industry customisation direction. For the cold chain, explosion-proof, clean room and other special scenarios, of special AGV surges.

5. 5G+Industrial Internet Convergence: Low latency and large bandwidth support efficient collaboration of large-scale AGV clusters.

V. Conclusion

AGV has become an indispensable infrastructure for the intelligent upgrading of enterprises, from the precision assembly in automobile factories to the massive sorting in e-commerce warehouses. Its application map is still expanding rapidly, penetrating into more and more segments. Understanding the AGV practice of head enterprises is a key step in laying out the future competitiveness. More and more famous global enterprises are realising intelligent logistics transformation by introducing AGV.

If your enterprise is considering the deployment of AGV solutions, you may wish to refer to the practice path of the above enterprises, combined with their own logistics pain points, to develop a suitable automation upgrade plan.

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