As labor shortages and the ongoing rise in labor costs continue to widen the gaps in repetitive, low-tech or high-risk, and monotonous job positions, traditional manufacturing is facing an epochal transformation towards intelligence and automation.
However, according to GGII data, the sales of AMR/AGV forklifts in China were 7,300 units in 2021 and 11,300 units in 2022, with penetration rates of only 0.94% and 1.65% respectively. As the market replacement rate of AMR/AGV forklifts for traditional forklifts gradually rises, the drawbacks of traditional autonomous forklifts on the market are gradually becoming apparent. There exists a clear situation where existing products struggle to meet the diverse and complex logistics warehousing demands of customers.
So what are the pain points of traditional AMR/AGV forklifts?
Most of the navigation methods adopted by the traditional AMR/AGV forklifts, and other mobile robots on the market are QR code navigation, reflector navigation, and 2D SLAM navigation. However, from years of research by LSLiDAR on customer pain points in the logistics warehousing field, these navigation methods have three main pain points:
1. Limited Applicability in Different Scenarios
QR code and reflector navigation methods identify routes by reflecting off QR codes and reflectors. However, their identification effect is greatly affected by lighting and weather. Nighttime, rainy, or snowy weather can all affect identification. Furthermore, outdoor environments can damage QR codes and reflectors, leading to high maintenance costs. 2D SLAM navigation can only detect 2D environmental information, making it unsuitable for complex indoor and outdoor environments, and especially unusable outdoors.
2. Complex Deployment Process
Traditional navigation methods using QR codes and reflectors require the placement of markers. For complex terrains, roads, and factory environments, precise planning is often needed to ensure the identifiability of navigation marks. The larger outdoor environments compared to indoor ones increase the complexity of the deployment, with the deployment process for over 10 AMR/AGV forklifts potentially lasting six months to a year.
3. High Cost
In large-scale deployments, QR code navigation and reflector navigation involve not only the cost of the equipment itself but also the cost of marker materials, maintenance, professional deployment, and user education. Currently, AMR/AGV forklifts equipped with LiDAR mostly use foreign LiDAR, which is expensive. If developing 3D SLAM algorithms independently, the cost and time of hiring a professional algorithm team can reach millions, which is extremely high.
In short, QR code navigation, reflector navigation, and 2D SLAM navigation all have shortcomings in areas such as environmental adaptability, perception ability, modeling accuracy, real-time performance, deployment complexity, and cost. To truly drive the industry forward, meet customer needs, and improve customer satisfaction, there is no doubt that more advanced technology is needed to break through the existing bottlenecks in the industry.
Why is LiDAR 3D SLAM technology the optimal solution for the large-scale application of AMR/AGV forklifts?
LSLiDAR’s multi-line LiDAR 3D SLAM positioning technology uses 3D LiDAR as the main sensor, fuses data from various sensors such as LiDAR, IMU, odometer, GPS, etc., and configures a high-performance processor to map and match the environment of the AMR/AGV forklifts. By combining with the Ethernet communication development interface, it meets the precise positioning and natural navigation needs of customers for various application scenarios of low-speed autonomous vehicles, robots, AMR/AGV forklifts, and other intelligent mobile carriers.
LSLiDAR has undergone 7 years of meticulous polishing of multi-line LiDAR 3D SLAM natural navigation and positioning technology products, which perfectly solves the three major pain points of traditional navigation solutions such as reflective plates, QR codes, and 2D SLAM: cannot be used outdoors, limited application scenarios, high-cost investment, complicated deployment, and easy to fail.
1. True LiDAR 3D SLAM Navigation and Positioning, Suitable for Various Outdoor and Indoor Scenarios
By adopting the world-leading multi-line LiDAR 3D SLAM positioning navigation technology, the stability of forklift perception positioning is greatly improved. It can realize high-precision 3D scene map construction, matching positioning, path planning, and real-time navigation obstacle avoidance functions. It is suitable for various indoor and outdoor environments, can accurately identify pallets and navigate obstacles day and night, realizing all-weather, all-scenario trouble-free operation.
Factory point cloud map constructed by multi-line LiDAR 3D SLAM
2. Convenient Deployment, Increased Efficiency
LSLiDAR Multi-line LiDAR 3D SLAM technology does not need to deploy positioning assistance facilities in the environment, more than 10 forklifts can be deployed in 1-2 weeks, which can save a lot of deployment time, quickly put into use, support intelligent multi-machine scheduling, and greatly improve work efficiency.
3. Extremely strong comprehensive cost control capability
Through strong independent R&D and manufacturing capabilities, LSLiDAR has developed high-performance LiDAR arrays and cultivated professional 3D SLAM algorithm teams. With years of vertical industry chain integration experience, it has achieved world-leading cost control capabilities. While ensuring stable, highly reliable, maintainable and safe performance, it can truly help companies reduce costs and increase efficiency.
In addition to resolving the above pain points, LSLiDAR’s LiDAR 3D SLAM technology also has more comprehensive perception capabilities to ensure operation safety of unmanned forklifts. It also supports compatible software for collaborative intelligent warehouse management.
Omnidirectional 3D perception, extreme safety protection
Every forklift can be configured with up to 7-8 LiDARs, providing rich and stable omnidirectional 3D perception to achieve extreme safety, stability and reliability.
Comprehensive stereoscopic perception protection diagram
Supporting integrated management software
The standard API interfaces are compatible with various software systems, and also support accompanying WMS, WCS, FMS, intelligent storage location monitoring systems to assist unmanned operation management.
Pioneer of LiDAR 3D SLAM AGV/AMR forklifts
LSLiDAR’s LiDAR 3D SLAM technology is far ahead of developed countries by more than two generations and is truly world-leading technology that can disrupt the industry. LSLiDAR is the first to achieve mass promotion and application of AGV/AMR forklift products globally and is the leader in 3D SLAM AGV/AMR forklift technology and industry.
Since launching the first 3D SLAM AGV/AMR forklift, LSLiDAR as the pioneering enterprise in applying LiDAR 3D SLAM technology, has already achieved substantial results in many actual application cases. It currently serves over 150 corporate customers across energy, automotive electronics, logistics, leather, food, textiles and many other fields, helping customers resolve pain points and achieve intelligent upgrades.
LSLiDAR’s leading multi-line LiDAR 3D SLAM technology is replacing traditional AGV/AMR forklifts across industries, becoming the more recognized solution, and restructuring the entire AGV/AMR forklift industry landscape. The era of LiDAR 3D SLAM technology has arrived, and will eventually bring an innovative revolution to the industry.
