The mass production of self-driving cars may still be a long way off, but the production of non-autonomous cars with the help of autonomous vehicles is in full swing.
Automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and their little siblings, small AGVs or automated guided carts (AGCs), have already been underway in production and logistics halls for some time now. Most of them, however, are line-guided or work on defined routes with fixed reference points. Forward-looking, Schiller Automatisierungstechnik GmbH even relies on complete tugger trains – that are autonomous and drive entirely freely – to ease the increased traffic in factory halls.
Self-driving tugger trains are already in use in the automotive industry. The electric trucks transport production goods to their next point of use on four trailers at ten kilometers per hour. With the help of contour-based localization, the tugger train knows exactly where it is at any time. The autonomous train does not need to be purchased completely new; the existing transport system can be used. A conventional electric truck serves as the basis, retrofitted by Schiller to create a driverless tugger train. This considerably reduces the investment costs. The conversion kit contains sensors for localization and vehicle protection, as well as a controller. The autonomous tugger train can also still be used manually with a driver.