AGVs: Ready for the market after 70 years?

Ready for the market after 70 years?

Labour shortages are also affecting logistics centres, where qualified staff are increasingly difficult to find. With order volumes growing, goods becoming more complex and batch sizes shrinking, further automation is an obvious next step. Automation in logistics has many names: IoT, RFID, palletising robotics and 3D shuttles. One of the brightest is AGV. Automated guided vehicles are systems that independently move a load from A to B. Their movement is directed, for example, by high-contrast adhesive tape on the floor or intelligent software.

At recent leading industrial trade fairs, visitors had to take care not to be run over by AGVs. This was not because of poor sensors or excessive speed, but because of the sheer number of vehicles and the prominence given to them by manufacturers. AGVs have become a symbol of Industry 4.0 in logistics.

But do modern vehicles offer more than symbolism compared with their predecessors? As their 70th anniversary approaches next year, the answer is a sobering “yes and no”. They are standard in production, but their usefulness in warehouses depends on countless factors. For most potential customers, too many of those factors point to no. Fewer than 30 of more than 300 logistics managers surveyed use AGVs, according to our own research. The most important factor remains people, not for ethical reasons or because of increased accident risk, but because machines thinking in ones and zeros and imprecise humans obstruct rather than complement one another in warehouse work. If a pallet is shifted by a centimetre or rotated beyond the AGV’s permitted limit, flexible repositioning is needed. That takes time, and the economic benefits disappear.

Today’s market resembles a bow being drawn. AGV manufacturers and their parent companies are positioning themselves, which partly explains their exuberant trade fair presence. The starting signal will come when software, sensors and underlying infrastructure, such as battery charging and telecommunications, together cross a critical threshold. This might mean implementing an AGV within a few hours or achieving payback in two to three years. Until then, most people will continue watching in amazement as manufacturers parade their innovations and large customers launch pilot projects.