of a wide aisle. Team members then picked
up the parts they needed from racks and
pallets on both sides of the aisle. The work
and material flow for parts delivery to the
robotic welding cells involved 16 stops, or
actions, from pickup to placement in the
welding robot load positions.
Today, the storage racks and pallets are
gone. Now, a driverless tow tractor pulls
as many as five dollies full of auto parts
from the storage area to the cells, a distance of about 950 feet. Team members
retrieve the parts they need from the dollies, which are positioned parallel to the
cells just a few steps away, eliminating the
need to cross the aisle. Once all the parts
have been unloaded, the AGV returns to
the storage area for more material, while
another tractor with the next batch of
parts arrives just when they’re needed.
Instead of 16 stops, there are only nine.
And because the AGVs always travel the
same route at the same speed, the time
from pickup to arrival at the welding cells
is consistent and predictable.
To get where they’re going, the tow tractors follow over two miles of magnetic
strip slotted into narrow troughs in the
concrete floor. Their positions are tracked
by RFID tags embedded in the floor.
Navigating the high-traffic body-weld
department requires care and precision.
The weld stations are positioned along a
300-foot “highway” with nine routes
branching off and merging into it—an
area known as “spaghetti junction.” In
addition, the tow tractors have to share
the road, so to speak, with other Toyota
AGVs (such as L-cart material transporters and low-profile “Mouse” tug-carts) that motor along the same magnetic guide paths. The tow tractors also cross
paths with the manned vehicles that deliver partial loads and those destined for
multiple drop-off sites. Drivers are
required to yield to the AGVs.
To manage the movements of the automatic vehicles, TMMK’s AGV implementation team worked with ICI to develop traf-fic-control technology that would be compatible with the guidance systems and control devices already in place for other types
of AGVs. The resulting Automated Vehicle
Intersection Navigational Utility (AVINU)
is “the link between the AGVs and every-
thing else that’s automated,” said
Taylor of ICI.
The wireless system communi-
cates with the different types of
AGVs, reporting each one’s location,
status, and performance data—
information that can be viewed on
any authorized computer in the
facility. AVINU assigns loads to vehi-
cles and regulates traffic at intersec-
tions; arrival at certain RFID tags
triggers wireless transmission of
instructions to the AGVs. The sys-
tem also monitors battery status and
tells the vehicles when to head over
to an opportunity charger.
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