Murata Machinery, Ltd. (Headquarters: 136 Takeda-Mukaishiro-cho, Fushimi-ku, Kyoto, Japan; President: Daisuke Murata) has developed the Premex XIO smart automated guidance vehicle (AGV).

Mass customization, a type of flexible manufacturing with ability to integrate people and systems and can quickly switch between manufacturing of different products, is going to be a requirement for the coming "Connected Industries" era. For the transport lines which supply parts and in-progress products to production equipment as well, in recent years there has been an increasing expectation of the potential for the utilization of AGV for more flexible transport systems to replace the conventional conveyor-centric fixed transport lines that have long been the standard. The Premex XIO is a new type of AGV developed for the coming era.

The Premex XIO features a compact body with a width of 700 mm, a total length of 985 mm, and height of 350 mm, and is a compact floor-type AGV which can load pallets up to a maximum load of 1 ton. The compact body allows the Premex XIO to travel at its maximum travel speed of 120 m/min even in narrow spaces between and even underneath production equipment. The body (drive section) and turn table which transport loads can rotate 360 degrees independent of each other, which allows for easier access to various equipment and can better accommodate a variety of packaging types. The Premex XIO is also equipped with safety scanners which detect obstacles, allowing for multiple units to safely travel along even narrow pathways.

In addition, for the operation of multiple AGV units, optimized assignment and other operation control is carried out for the system as a whole, which makes it simple to increase and decrease the number of units in operation according to production capacity increases as well as busy and free periods. The system is a new solution which replaces pallet transport and sorting carts, conveyors, and other types of fixed equipment, while also serving as a highly flexible pallet transport system that can be utilized in a wide variety of production and distribution scenarios.

The Premex XIO will be on exhibition at LOGIS-TECH 2018, to be held beginning September 11, 2018, at Tokyo Big Sight, so we hope you can come and see this new logistic and automation system proposal based on the Muratec E-LOGICS concept for yourself.

Premex XIO compact floor type AGV (Automatic Guided Vehicle)