Automaker seeks solution to worker fatigue
Hyundai Motor India faced production challenges, including worker fatigue. “There was high fatigue in manual feeding jobs,” said Ravisankar G., manager of materials management at Hyundai Motor India.
“Normally, we’d prefer humans, considering the cost, but only eight car bumpers can fit onto a trolley, which has to move 400 m [1,312 ft.]. That’s a 400 kg [881.8 lb.] job,” he added. “We definitely needed the support of more robots for manual work.”
Hyundai Motor India had already developed and maintained its own autonomous guided vehicles (AGVs), but the company ultimately chose an outside provider.
“We had made robots that followed magnetic lines but wanted to adopt new technology for natural navigation, but we didn’t have a lot of expertise in that field,” Ravisankar told Robotics 24/7. “We studied all the leading AMR suppliers in India and got contacts through our procurement team.”
“We went to the Ati Motors plant,” he said. “We then selected Ati Motors based on their special features.”
Read the full case study at Robotics247