Audi, the German car manufacturer, has ordered 14 AGVs (Automated Guided Vehicles) from AVT Europe NV. These AGVs will be used in Audi’s new warehouse in Ingolstadt, Germany.

At the Ingolstadt warehouse, about 1,500 pallets enter and about 1,500 pallets leave the warehouse by trucks or trains every day. Audi was looking for a solution to move these pallets through the warehouse with a minimum of forklift traffic.
The AGVs can transport 1 to 4 pallets at a time and deliver them to the 40,000m² warehouse per floor. As an added challenge, there are 8 elevators to bring the AGVs between the two floors.
They are designed to carry and transport up to 3500kg at a speed of 6km/h. There is a Lithium battery on board that allows for recharging while picking up new pallets.
The AGVs can also be used as an internal cab service to transport a pallet or part within the plant by calling them through an app developed in-house or they can even be reserved in advance for a specific time slot.

For this project, the AGVs need to function perfectly between forklifts, people, fire doors, elevators, etc. Safety and navigation are crucial!
Therefore, the latest laser navigation will be installed so that the AGVs are able to recognize objects from their surroundings. This creates a very flexible setup that can be adjusted later on through the provided traffic control system.