Everyone in the tech world is talking about autonomous vehicles from taxis that will drive themselves to self-driving cars for the masses to trucks without professional drivers behind the wheel. And what seemed like something from a futuristic TV show ten years ago, today is very doable although not easy and not without some challenges.
The Pallet Enterprise recently explored these topics with Alliance Automation, which is offering autonomous vehicles much more common in pallet plants in the near future. Some pallet companies are already deploying this technology in Europe. For example, the May issue of Pallet Enterprise featured a story on how PFK/Post in Europe is using autonomous vehicles to move pallets and lumber to and from nailing lines.
The Enterprise staff discussed the opportunities, challenges and capabilities of this technology for pallet applications with Doug Wenninger, the president of Alliance Automation, and Kevin Wentz, the mechanical engineering manager for Alliance Automation.
While autonomous vehicles are coming, they aren’t a perfect fit for every application yet.
PALLET ENTERPRISE: Why would pallet companies want to consider using autonomous vehicles?
Doug Wenninger: From a very high level, the obvious reason that companies would want to do this is cost savings. I’ve asked this question not only to pallet companies but also to many manufacturers: ‘What is the annual cost for each forklift in your facility?’ Typically, the responses range from $100,000 to $150,000 per year. This includes the capital cost of the forklift itself, the maintenance costs, and the driver plus benefits. The guys that would say closer to the $150,000 range, it’s a multi-shift operation where they’re running it with multiple people across multiple shifts.
PALLET ENTERPRISE: What does a pallet plant need to have to even consider autonomous vehicles? What about forklift and usage patterns?
Doug Wenninger: Any manufacturing space where you have repeatable patterns is a viable candidate for using this technology. Pallets coming off the end of line and going to inventory. That is certainly a viable option now. Going in and out of trucks with cores or finished pallets, that’s not easy to do. But it is certainly possible. Challenges include variable load patterns, loads shifting in transit, non-palletized items in the load, etc.
PALLET ENTERPRISE: How complex does the pattern or list of duties have to get to make autonomous vehicles less viable?
Kevin Wentz: We currently can bring any kind of finished goods from a warehouse or a loading dock area, or from another piece of equipment in the plant to where you need it to be. This action can be programmed very simply. You don’t need complicated human-to-machine interface screens. Operators can use a simple tablet to execute an order. They can hit a call button that says I need X brought to me. I need a pallet of nails brought over to my nailing machine or a pallet of six-inch boards brought to repair station number one.
Trailer loading and unloading will be a thing for us next year. It’s a lot more difficult with stacks of pallets because they can easily shift. So, we are going to really start with stable loads, boxed goods and items that are stretch wrapped. But once a stack of pallets is moved out from a truck and placed on a loading dock, it is much easier to use autonomous vehicles to transport those stacks to repair lines. We can easily program a system where a stack of finished pallets on a line trips a sensor, and an AGV is called to move that stack to a particular area in the warehouse.
PALLET ENTERPRISE: Human interaction is one thing that can disrupt repeatable patterns or add complexity to automated systems. How safe are AGVs when it comes to human interactions?
Kevin Wentz: Alliance Automation has chosen to partner with VisionNav on this project. VisionNav has sold thousands of these autonomous forklifts around the world and has never had a safety incident involving its autonomous forklifts. They are very safe. The autonomous forklifts and the counterbalance trucks that we are selling have a guidance system that, if there’s an obstacle in their way, it will stop and wait. The smaller top-lift style autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) actually have obstacle avoidance capabilities. So, if it detects a block of wood on the ground or debris, it will actually drive around it.
We are offering different vehicles depending on the application. Some are counterbalanced. Some are heavier duty designed for tougher jobs. Some can handle steep slopes or have higher payloads.
PALLET ENTERPRISE: Is Alliance just repping for VisionNav and SEER? Are these exclusive deals in the United States?
Doug Wenninger: It’s not an exclusive deal, although leads we take to VisionNav and SEER are registered as our customer. But more than just a distributor, we are an integrator for them. We are also partnering with SEER to provides solutions with AMRs. It is similar to how we are a representative and integrator for Yaskawa and Fanuc when it comes to robots.
PALLET ENTERPRISE: What are the integration systems that go along with the forklifts? If they don’t need to have everything mapped out, then I don’t know what else is needed other than the actual lift vehicle?
Kevin Wentz: It could be as simple as there is nothing. If you wanted to pick up a stack of pallets from here and just transport it to another area for convenience, it could be that simple and not require any elaborate sensors or programming. Other applications may require integration with multiple conveyor systems or lines involving various sensors. Some uses may involve integration with inventory management or Warehouse Management System software that run an entire plant. For example, AMRs could be combined with the Urban Sawmill to take bins of recycled boards when full to various operators at repair stations or to a nailing line.
PALLET ENTERPRISE: Do automated forklifts and vehicles need larger aisles and spaces to maneuver?
Kevin Wentz: Actually, these automated forklifts can get by in smaller forklift aisles than what a human-operated forklift can do. Also, if your forklift aisles are not optimized very well and you have to go around equipment or it’s a long path of travel, that’s really where these excel. You don’t have labor tied up. You could have multiple forklifts all in the same system. So, all the ideas and functions I told you that can happen in a pallet factory, you could have one or you could have ten of them, and they’ll all respond based on what calls are needed throughout the day.
Doug Wenninger: If an operator at this machine over here calls that I need a load of lumber or a load of nails or whatever, or take a stack away, it can. The operator makes that request. The tablet communicates to the Warehouse Management System, and it will send the automated vehicle that has the minimal distance to execute the request.
PALLET ENTERPRISE: You talked about drivers behind the adoption of this technology. Obviously cost savings are key. What’s your estimate that you’ve hit for ROI at this point?
Kevin Wentz: Two years or less. And that would be with multiple two or more shift operation pay.
PALLET ENTERPRISE: You’re not really saving efficiency when it comes to these vehicles. They don’t necessarily operate any faster than a traditional forklift. So, it’s really about just eliminating that position…right?
Kevin Wentz: Partially, it’s also about improving safety and consistency. They do run slower than a manual trip. They are slower, and statistically, they are much safer. Their paths are more optimized; it’s more predictable where they’re going to be versus a manual truck driver. Stacks are more stable when these vehicles are transporting. So, a manual driver may speed up and slow down, or the operator may jerk the wheel where these AGVs and AMRs follow very smooth program paths.
When it comes to evaluating the feasibility of the technology for a particular application, we are looking at throughput. So how often do we need to pick up from one area and drop off at another area? We’re looking at the distance and doing calculations to understand how many vehicles we need. We are trying to figure out how many charging stations are needed and how often the vehicle needs to go back to charge. We’re looking at manufacturing conditions in general. I mentioned floors with slopes. We are looking at aisle widths. We’re looking at how much static equipment is installed in the building that never moves versus things that are always moving or things like building columns. So, if there are a lot of dynamic pieces that are moving a lot, we would put up some kind of sensors or strips that can see and detect these obstacles.
PALLET ENTERPRISE: What about variable surfaces for the ground or floor? What if you have some areas that are gravel or dirt?
Kevin Wentz: Ideally not. I believe VisionNav and SEER have done applications on some types of gravel. It just depends how hard packed it is, how consistent, how smooth the surface is. But for the most part, this technology is designed to work on indoor applications.
PALLET ENTERPRISE: What are the staffing and maintenance expertise that a company would need to have on hand to utilize AGVs and AMRs?
Kevin Wentz: Everything that is on these vehicles are easily accessible components. Your average forklift maintenance company around the country would be able to work on these machines. And then all the other components are off-the-shelf automation, electronics products that are easily accessible in the United States. We are offering service and support to our customers as well.
PALLET ENTERPRISE: Does using AGVs change anything about the stacking height of pallets?
Kevin Wentz: No, it doesn’t change any of that. In fact, we can do double stacking of pallets. We could use extended length forks. If we wanted to pick up two stacks of pallets, one in front of the other, at the same time, we can do stack clamping to clamp the stack down while we transport it. There’s pocket detection, so we could do adjustable width forks. If somebody’s running multiple size of pallets or they’re going from a three stringer to four stringer pallets or block pallets, it will detect where the pockets are, and it will adjust the width to the forks automatically.
PALLET ENTERPRISE: Do you have anybody who’s in any type of beta test for this technology right now?
Doug Wenninger: Not within the pallet industry. But we do have one demo vehicle on our floor right now. And customers can see them on our plant tour.
PALLET ENTERPRISE: How will AGVs and AMRs change the industry?
Doug Wenninger: Early adopters will see the value in this technology. But many people will have to transform the way their operation works inside buildings to deploy AGVs and AMRs. This includes more predictable usage patterns, tying their systems together with sensors and a focus on cleanliness. So, light sawdust on the floor is not a problem, but as I mentioned, when it sees obstacles, it will stop. As a result, pallet operations will have to start paying more attention to their aisle-ways.
Kevin Wentz: Some operations may deploy automated vehicles in some zones and not in others. In areas where you have repeatable patterns, the automated vehicles work well.
PALLET ENTERPRISE: What are the sensors on the vehicles that provide for safe operation? What technology is deployed in these units?
Kevin Wentz: There’s 2D and 3D sensors on the machine that are constantly looking for things that aren’t supposed to be there. So once a human gets within a certain range, it slows down a certain percentage, and once you get closer, it slows down even more. And then, once you get to the point where it would be a concern, it stops. So, it’s not like it just immediately stops once you get within a certain distance of it.
PALLET ENTERPRISE: What does the implementation process look like? What aspects are handled by Alliance Automation compared to VisionNav?
Kevin Wentz: For now, we are working with VisionNav on these initial projects. They are supporting us, and eventually we will own the installation 100%, including the deployment of the vehicles, setting up the fleet management software, installing any required sensors, putting in the charging stations and connecting all the aspects of the system. Usually, we suggest rolling out two to three vehicles so the fleet management software cost can be spread out over more vehicles.
PALLET ENTERPRISE: What’s the one negative we haven’t talked about yet?
Doug Wenninger: The biggest negative is that people are too slow to adopt the technology. This is similar to the early adopters of the Robotic Pallet Dismantler. In a recent article in Pallet Enterprise, Fred Vrugteveen of Niagara Pallet talked about the benefits of the robot and said that he wished he’d done it years ago. That’s what everybody says who uses those robots. And that’s what everybody will say when they adopt these automated vehicles.
