Trumpf (Ditzingen, Germany) and Jungheinrich (Hamburg, Germany) are working together to bring driverless vehicles to fabricating facilities. The vehicles autonomously transport sheet metal parts between various machine tools and storage areas. Jungheinrich’s vehicles are complemented by Trumpf TruTops Fab production control software. In this application, TruTops prioritizes the transport jobs in line with the production schedule and forwards these orders to the Jungeinrich transport system. The factory transport unites start and finish each job at one of the docking stations positioned next to machine tools or in the warehouse. These units are equipped with sensors that capture data on all the logistics processes involved. Information on arrival of a pallet is automatically reported to the workstation of the relevant machine operator. In addition, Trumpf will offer personal consultation and other services to help customers integrate the autonomous transport systems. Trumpf has already proven the concept at its smart factories in Chicago and Ditzingen, where once-manual transport processes now are automated.
For more information on TruTops: https://www.trumpf.com/en_US/products/software/