While work on a full-fledged autopilot for cars continues actively, Ford has commissioned a new self-driving robot at its plant that can quickly and efficiently deliver parts and documents, change routes depending on obstacles along the way and, according to the company's calculations, release about 40 hours of time per day for employees to work on more complex tasks.
This robot is currently used at a Ford plant in Europe. The developers gave it the name "Survival", which means "survival" in English, because of the way it can adapt to its environment. If the robot detects something blocking its path, it will remember it and change its route next time.
Survival was completely designed and built by Ford engineers, and one of its most interesting features is its ability to run in the enterprise without any special setup: the droid simply learns everything on the go.
“We've programmed it to explore the entire plant on its own, so other than its own sensors, it doesn't need any external guidance to navigate,” says Ford development engineer Eduardo García Magraner.
“When we first started using it, you could see employees feeling like they were in some kind of sci-fi movie, stopping and watching the robot drive past them. Now they just carry on with their work, knowing that the robot is smart enough to beat them."
The Survival is currently undergoing a trial period at Ford's body stamping plant in Valencia, where the Kuga, Mondeo and S-Max are built. His task is to transport spare parts and welding materials to various areas of the plant - a rather tedious task for a person, but not at all burdensome for a robot.
Like Ford's self-driving car prototypes, the robot uses lidar to detect surrounding objects using laser pulses.
Thanks to an automated shelf with 17 different slots, Survival can deliver specific parts to specific operators, with each employee only having access to a specific section of the robot's product catalog.
Ford says Survival isn't meant to replace people, it's simply meant to make their days a little more interesting and easier. A self-driving robot frees up employee time, which they can use for more complex tasks in the factory.
“Survival has been in testing for almost a year now, and so far it has been absolutely flawless,” says García Magraner. “He has become a very valuable member of the team. We hope that we will soon be able to use it on an ongoing basis and introduce copies of it to other Ford facilities.”
Source: 3dnews.ru