Modern car assembly plants have for some time used remote control robot trolleys to deliver parts to the assembly line but technology leaders Audi have taken things a step further with robots being used to move complete cars.
On trial at the Ingolstadt, Germany plant since last month, the robots are used to move finished vehicles from the end of the assembly line to a storage area.
From there the robots then move cars to programmed locations to begin journeys to their final customers.
The robots consist of a frame 6.0-metres by 3.0-metres which use sensors to determine the position and size of a car then grip the wheels and lift it up to 10.0-cms from the ground and then moves them to a pre-determined location.
“The autonomous transport of our automobiles could allow us to eliminate long walking distances for our employees and to improve the ergonomics of their work,” explained Audi’s production chief Prof. Dr. Hubert Waltl.
