Typical questions:

(1)     Are the vehicles safe?

NDC comply with European standard EN1525 which includes safety measure to make sure the vehicles can not collide or hit personnel or other products in the plant. All our vehicles use SICK laser scanners to scan the areas In front of the vehicle when it is traveling. There is a slow down field and a stop field. When a person or object moves inside the slow down field which is usually set at approx 2m from the vehicle the vehicle will rapidly slow down. If the object or person remains in front of the traveling path of the vehicle it will stop once it has reached the stop zone which is normally set at 500mm from the vehicle. The vehicle will remain in this mode until the object or person has moved out of the way.

(2)     How do they find their way in my factory?

Most vehicles today communicate using Wireless Lan and all orders are sent from the host system to the vehicles in this manner. It is very quick and efficient way of communicating. All the vehicles have pre programmed pick up and drop off locations and all the path ways are stored in the vehicles on board PLC. There is virtually a map of your factory in the vehicles computer and by using reflectors mounted on walls and columns it can navigate even through the tightest places. With a standard system capable of looking after up to 50 vehicles it is a very simple system.

(3)     How long does the installation take?

Depending on the size of the system it normally takes one week per vehicle plus one week for the reflectors, chargers and local wiring to be completed. One of our fastest installations was completed in only 5 days.

(4)     AGVs are not reliable or are they?

The systems these days are very reliable with virtually no maintenance required for the first 2 years and then regular servicing once per year. We expect that every system and vehicles have an up time of no less than 99.8%.