Seat implements self-driven robots at Martorell plant

The Seat plant in Martorell has become the first industrial manufacturer in Europe to utilise outdoor, Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV) with Simultaneous Localisation And Mapping (SLAM) navigation, a 4G connection and induction battery charging.

To date, eight AGVs are operating outside the production workshops at the Martorell plant to automate the transport of parts. The new vehicles join the 200 AGVs that are already delivering parts inside the assembly workshops at the Martorell and Barcelona factories.

Each outdoor AGV and their carriages make up a 25m convoy with a maximum transport capacity of 10 tonnes and cover routes of 3.5km in length. Thanks to SLAM navigation, these vehicles are not guided by magnetic tape or wires, so maintenance costs are reduced. They are more versatile to adapt to new routes as their installation does not require any construction beforehand.

Altogether, the eight AGVs travel 240km a day. There are currently two ongoing routes between the press and metal shops on which vehicle parts and mobile elements such as hatches and doors are delivered, a move which does away with truck transport between these facilities.

The fleet of outdoor AGVs enables a reduction of 1.5 tonnes of CO₂ per year, since until now these deliveries were carried out using a truck and a tractor. The use of these AGVs makes deliveries more efficient and cost-effective, and reduces stockpiling at both the starting and destination points as well as vehicle traffic inside the factory.