From the agricultural age to the industrial age, and from the industrial age to the intelligent age, every upgrade has liberated people more and solved many difficulties in different ages. With the acceleration of the resumption of work and production, problems such as "difficult recruitment" and "expensive labor" have gradually become prominent. How to break the situation and labor shortage, BYD's answer is-intelligent, unmanned + new energy.

"Can machines think?" In 1950, Alan Turing asked a question at the beginning of his paper "Computing Machines and Intelligence". This question not only won Turing the title of "Father of Artificial Intelligence", but also awakened artificial intelligence. More than 70 years of rapid development.

In 2016, AlphaGo was born and defeated Korean Go player Lee Sedol with a score of 4:1. A man-machine duel between artificial intelligence and the world's top Go master brought artificial intelligence to the spotlight on the world stage. Since then, the world has begun to pay attention to the development of artificial intelligence.

BYD forklifts grasped the pulse of the times early, and continuously promoted the intelligent development path of lithium battery forklifts in the torrent of development. In October 2018, BYD and ST Engineering, an Asian engineering giant, signed a cooperation agreement to carry out in-depth cooperation in the field of unmanned forklifts. In November of the same year, BYD Forklift launched the first intelligent handling robot at CeMAT ASIA, which opened the curtain for BYD Forklift to enter the field of artificial intelligence.

"The intelligence and networking of forklifts, the improvement of regular control systems, laser guidance, and the promotion of industrialization and mass production are the new directions for BYD's next-generation products." Bi Guozhong, general manager of BYD Forklifts, said.

And so it is. In recent years, BYD Forklift has been working hard to promote the forklift industry in the direction of intelligent development. In the field of warehouse-type handling robots, counterbalanced handling robots and traction-type handling robots, BYD forklifts have launched corresponding intelligent products. While reducing management difficulty and improving work efficiency, handling robots can also save a lot of labor costs. With its unique advantages, handling robots have begun to be accepted by more and more companies.

Handling operation is unmanned

For manufacturing companies, logistics operation is an important link in the fight against the epidemic and guaranteeing production. The logistics connection between raw materials in the factory and finished products, and even the transportation outside the factory, require the blessing of handling and logistics technology.

Only through comprehensive digital transformation, deeply cultivating new models, new services, and new formats of digital economic development, and forming digital "immunity", can we truly have the ability to resist risks. Intelligent robot technology and systems can provide enterprises with a full-process intelligent handling solution from source, warehousing to transportation. Intelligent operations such as handling. After the epidemic, the traditional manufacturing industry, which relies heavily on manual production, will more clearly realize the importance and urgency of manufacturing intelligence, and accelerate the application deployment of intelligent and unmanned technologies and products.

The launch of BYD's forklift handling robot fundamentally breaks the dilemma of enterprises restricting manpower. That is, machines replace manpower, and through one-time equipment investment and subsequent relatively "cheap" maintenance costs, companies can reduce labor costs and improve production and operation efficiency. Zhang Jie, secretary-general of the Industrial Vehicle Branch of China Construction Machinery Industry Association, said: "BYD forklifts have been promoting the development of China's industrial vehicle industry in the direction of intelligence and electrification for decades, and are well-deserved leaders of China's new energy forklifts."

How does the handling robot gain a foothold

Based on the Internet of Things, the fleet management system built by BYD Forklift has almost become the standard configuration of its entire product series. BYD's intelligent logistics handling robot has the characteristics of high precision and high safety. It has learned from BYD Auto's remote control driving technology. BYD forklifts can also use the remote control to remotely control vehicles to achieve one-to-many operations. Among them, BYD's AC20DP counterbalanced handling robot can be described as a "hexagonal warrior". Its load capacity has reached an astonishing 2000kg, and its linear tracking accuracy error is less than 10mm. It can also detect scenes and obstacles through lidar and create maps in real time. To correct the position of the robot, so as to effectively plan the walking trajectory.

Accurate positioning technology is also required to realize the above functions, which has to mention the secret weapon of BYD forklift intelligent handling robot---laser navigation technology. BYD forklifts install laser reflectors around the driving path of intelligent handling robots in advance. The handling robots continuously emit laser beams outward through laser scanners, and at the same time collect the laser beams reflected by the reflectors. Using the positions and feedback of at least three reflectors, Calculate the current position and heading of the handling robot through triangular geometry calculations, and then correct the track in time. It is not difficult to see from this that the purpose of the intelligent product spectrum established by BYD Forklift is to better serve users and achieve qualitative improvements in terms of reducing resource waste and achieving dual carbon goals.

The era of intelligent logistics and transportation is coming

With the gradual disappearance of China's demographic dividend, the logistics industry, which has long relied on manpower, is transforming from labor-intensive to technology-intensive, and upgrading from traditional models to smart logistics. Facing the challenges of the new era, the traditional method of millet plus rifles can no longer meet the rapid development of the logistics industry.

Using an unmanned and intelligent overall solution to improve the safety and efficiency of enterprise production can not only help enterprises develop safely during the epidemic, but also improve the sustainable development capabilities and competitiveness of manufacturing enterprises from a long-term perspective. Take BYD's AQ20MPW traction handling robot as an example: it adopts industry-leading automation technology to provide professional intelligent logistics solutions, and is not limited by venues, roads and spaces; it can achieve high-precision and precise path adjustment, and in terms of safety control and fault protection, Different choices can be made for different working conditions, greatly improving performance; real-time monitoring of the operating status of all handling robots and feedback of vehicle status information to achieve reasonable path planning, adjustment of task assignments, and flexible obstacle avoidance to optimize logistics and transportation.

In the contemporary commercial civilization with turbulent technological trends, more and more enterprises have begun to reflect on their growth paths and are moving towards the "crossroads of technology and humanities". JIBS Dean John Ruth pointed out: "We must question the prevailing trend of overemphasizing technology. It is true that the progress of technology is gratifying, but in order to make these technologies serve people, we must pay attention to humanistic thinking. , and the two complement each other." In the process of solving labor shortages and labor shortages, it is neither realistic nor true for the entire industry to become unmanned overnight. The introduction of intelligence is precisely to ensure that workers still have job opportunities while maximizing the optimal positive curve between staff reduction and enterprise energy efficiency ratio. As a representative of Chinese national enterprises, while promoting the development of the industry, BYD Forklift is also committed to fulfilling due social responsibility and humanistic feelings.

Establish a new environment and shape the future. The original intention of BYD forklift remains the same. While sticking to the new energy track, it continues to promote the intelligent development of the forklift industry. It is foreseeable that in the first year of double carbon, BYD forklift will continue to demonstrate its role as a leader, empower green development with electrification and digitalization, and lead the Chinese forklift industry to a new start.Editor/Ma Xue