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The leading AGV manufacturer ek robotics expands its comprehensive product portfolio by a technological innovation: With the Robot Operations Center (short: ROC) a vision of the future in the automation industry can be realized. With ROC, tasks that could not previously be fully automated in a process-safe manner can be solved using teleoperation and artificial intelligence. The Robot Operations Center is a command center for remote access to automated guided vehicles (AGVs), in which a teleoperator is surrounded by several monitors and operates a comprehensive environment and status monitoring system of the transport robot. The control takes place via steering wheel, pedals and joysticks. For optimal and latency-free communication between operator and transport robot, very good network coverage and a high bandwidth for the transmission of control and video signals are required. The vehicle components consist of high-resolution cameras, optical sensors and an on-board unit that enables remote control via WLAN or 5G campus networks. ROC achieves another step toward process-safe automation of tasks that automated guided vehicles (AGVs) have not yet been able to learn and perform themselves. The primary goal is to align the capability spectrum of automated forklifts with those of human operators in order to realize even greater automation potential. This requires self-learning systems with simultaneously high process reliability. The use of teleoperation in borderline areas of automation ensures the necessary process reliability for the user and at the same time forms the data basis for the functions of complete automation to be learned. In this way, transport robots can learn from human actions of teleoperators, develop new capabilities and further increase the overall automation potential.

Broad range of applications for semi-autonomous driving

Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV) are an integral part of sustainable, process-optimized intralogistics. They ensure optimized internal material flows and more efficient processes in production, warehouse and distribution centers. Transport robots from ek robotics perform high transport services fully autonomously and can be used in 24h operation 365 days a year. In very large AGV systems, fast remote access to the vehicles is possible via the teleoperator in order to be able to react quickly to malfunction situations without having to leave the workplace in the command center. Automated outdoor vehicles can be manually controlled from the ROC in the event of difficult weather conditions or disruptions caused by plant traffic. The Robot Operations Center will use teleoperation and artificial intelligence to push the boundaries of future automation.

Discover the Robot Operations Center

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