Has industrial park logistics become a "battlefield" for mobile robot companies and driverless car manufacturers?

As park owners are eager to upgrade to automation, humanization and unmanned operation in loading and unloading, transportation, distribution and warehousing, the application of logistics in the park has gradually become popular. Especially in some large logistics parks and parks, the whole process of factory-to-factory and production line-to-production line cargo transportation has been covered.

The application of unmanned driving in park logistics is accelerating, and more cross-scenario players are entering the market

In January 2022, the State Council issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of a Modern Comprehensive Transportation System", which clearly proposed to promote the deep integration of new technologies with the transportation industry and encourage testing and application in limited areas such as ports and logistics parks.

According to the New Strategic Low-Speed ​​Unmanned Driving Industry Research Institute, the application scenarios of unmanned driving in park logistics are mainly in industrial parks, logistics parks, bonded areas, manufacturing plants, etc. At present, some leading companies have begun to taste the "sweetness" of cost reduction and efficiency improvement brought by unmanned driving, accelerating the implementation of more projects.

Situation of some new domestic and key park logistics unmanned driving projects in 2023 (Please correct any incompleteness!)

Thanks to the accumulation of early operation scenario data and the advancement of autonomous driving technology, some unmanned driving projects in park logistics have achieved small-scale unmanned normal operation. According to the above table, from the perspective of the major industries to which the projects belong, in addition to the popular automobile manufacturing industry, unmanned vehicles have begun to be put into use in the brewing industry, steel industry, chemical industry, aerospace industry, and even construction sites to improve the speed and efficiency of material transportation. The industry coverage of unmanned driving in park logistics is constantly expanding.

From the perspective of major participating companies, in addition to the well-known Lide Space, its smart logistics solutions have been widely used in the production logistics of a coal mine of a certain energy group, a chemical fiber factory, an automobile parts processing plant, and a pharmaceutical factory production line; Jiuyao Intelligent mainly develops and manufactures industrial-grade inter-field logistics unmanned driving and L4-level engineering vehicle unmanned driving solutions, and its products have been widely used in automobile OEMs such as Nanjing Automobile and FAW Toyota, as well as upstream and downstream suppliers, fast-moving consumer goods, etc. The increase in cross-scenario entrants is also a major feature of the industry's development this year.

Companies such as Xingshen Intelligent and Jiushi Intelligent, which have achieved innovative development results in the field of terminal logistics, have also achieved business breakthroughs in the field of park logistics. Jiushi Intelligent participated in the construction of the Suzhou Industrial Park Comprehensive Bonded Zone Intelligent Networked Unmanned Vehicle Customs Clearance and Release Project. The unmanned vehicle can intelligently complete a series of processes such as empty vehicle identification, analysis, bill issuance, card passing, loading and unloading, etc., helping more park companies to reduce the overall process costs. For example, Youdao Zhitu, while comprehensively promoting the popularization of port autonomous driving, is also exploring scenarios such as steel plants and bonded areas. These cross-scenario entrants have further enriched the types of unmanned vehicles in park logistics.

Autonomous driving + mobility, technology integration and the launch of multiple new products

There are many operational links in the entire process of park logistics. For example, in an automobile parts processing plant, the early material transportation from the warehouse to the workshop, the transfer of semi-finished products from the current production line in the workshop to the next production line, the packaging of finished products and their storage, the later sales and transfer out of the warehouse, etc., may all involve the use of various transport vehicles.

For this reason, in addition to autonomous driving companies, companies that are planning to develop unmanned park logistics will also involve mobile robot companies. In addition to unmanned trucks and unmanned tractors, unmanned forklifts, AGV vehicles, and more are also being put into use.

As the application of unmanned driving in park logistics accelerates this year, in order to respond to market demand and to meet the flexible use of products in multiple scenarios, many companies have launched a series of new products in the field of park logistics this year.

In 2023, some companies will launch new unmanned driving products for park logistics (please correct me if there are any imperfections!)

The new products listed in the table above are mainly unmanned tractors and unmanned logistics vehicles, with the following changes in product form and core technology:

Modular design to meet flexible needs

In the automated handling solutions for park logistics, end users often choose the appropriate vehicle type according to the specific type of materials being transported, such as unmanned flatbed trucks, unmanned tractors, unmanned forklifts, unmanned delivery vehicles, unmanned trucks, etc. However, too many vehicle types can sometimes cause some trouble for the unified dispatching and management of vehicles.

The New Strategic Low-Speed ​​Unmanned Driving Industry Research Institute has found that modular design and multifunctional combination have become the design ideas for new products of some companies. For example, the L4 unmanned logistics vehicle Chitu, independently developed by UQI, a smart logistics business subsidiary of UBTECH, can switch between three forms: flatbed trucks, vans, and tractors to better meet the different needs of customers in different scenarios. Its carriage with a load of up to 600 kilograms can easily fit 50 tires, and its maximum traction load of 3 tons can tow more than 6 large shelves, and it can undertake unmanned delivery tasks in various closed scenes such as industrial or logistics parks.

Yika Intelligent Vehicle also has a similar design on its unmanned transport vehicle newly released this year. On Yika Intelligent Vehicle's medium- and low-speed (within 40km/h) platform based on closed roads, non-motorized lanes and other scenarios, the power configuration, modules, transport modules, etc. can be flexibly replaced. For example, lifting platforms, fences, cargo boxes, etc. can also be replaced based on the same platform, truly combining scenarios and needs to achieve high customization.

Eliminate RTK and break through more limitations

In the field of unmanned driving, RTK technology is widely used in autonomous driving vehicles, providing accurate navigation and positioning services by using the relative position information of the Global Positioning System (GNSS) and base stations. Using RTK technology, vehicles can perceive changes in the surrounding environment in real time, and perform path planning and driving control based on maps, thereby achieving autonomous navigation and obstacle avoidance.

However, during use, the industry found that unmanned vehicles may experience problems such as GPS/RTK loss and unstable positioning in some complex scenarios. As a result, some companies began to emphasize the "de-RTK" of their products, so that unmanned vehicles for park logistics can have a wider range of application scenarios.

The two new unmanned logistics vehicles for campuses released in October this year both highlight the “de-RTK” technology route. Chitu is UQI’s first “high-precision positioning without RTK” unmanned logistics vehicle. It is equipped with multiple sensors such as multi-line laser radar, camera, ultrasonic radar, etc. At the same time, it integrates multi-sensor information based on Transfmer’s multi-modal perception technology to obtain consistent results in time and space from the perspective of BEV, and can achieve accurate perception of the surrounding environment. The L4-level indoor and outdoor unmanned tractor T50-H launched by Ant Robotics uses multi-sensor fusion positioning technology of laser radar, IMU and wheel speed meter, emphasizing the complete removal of combined navigation or RTK.

Suitable for indoor and outdoor use, continuous all-weather operation

As mentioned above, there are many links in the whole process of park logistics, and there are links that can be penetrated by autonomous driving technology from indoors to outdoors. The modular design and RTK-free of new products in the current industry are all to open up the application connection between indoors and outdoors for products. The universal use of indoors and outdoors also puts more pressure on the stable operation of unmanned vehicles under changes in light and climate.

Industrial parks may be the first to achieve large-scale commercial use

According to the New Strategic Low-Speed ​​Unmanned Driving Industry Research Institute, there are currently nearly 10,000 large industrial parks in China, mainly chemical plants, automobile industries, and steel mills. The logistics of these parks generally have obvious pain points: First, the logistics infrastructure of the parks is relatively weak. The construction of infrastructure such as roads, bridges, and parking lots within the parks is obviously lagging behind, and lacks maintenance and updates, which easily leads to frequent congestion and bottlenecks in the logistics operations of the parks, greatly affecting the efficiency and benefits of logistics operations.