Self-Driving Vehicles for Material Transport

OTTO Motors, provider of self-driving vehicles (SDVs) for material transport, held a press conference at IMTS to showcase new configurations of the OTTO 1500 and OTTO 100 SDVs and discuss how this technology is contributing to Industry 4.0 initiatives within manufacturing.

OTTO Motors launched in April 2016 with a line of SDVs designed exclusively for material transport, which have rapidly been adopted by customers like GE and John Deere. "The indoor self-driving vehicle revolution is happening. Currently OTTO Motors is on trend to have more autonomous miles driven than the Google driverless car," said Simon Drexler, Director of Industrial Solutions at OTTO Motors.

"Before I joined OTTO Motors, I worked for the world's largest supplier of industrial automation and one of the things we used to say is if you can define it, you can automate it. We used to automate some weird and wonderful things there. The really exciting thing about the OTTO technology is that we are now able to automate the undefined tasks; the things that we currently cannot automate with traditional technology.

"The OTTO system that we are bringing to the market is intelligent, it is safe and it is purpose built for industry. The intelligence of the vehicle is capable of navigating an industrial facility entirely with an onboard sensor suite and intelligence. There is no infrastructure required to get this system operational."

"To integrate this type of technology into a building, users take OTTO for a walk around that facility and it uses its perception sensors, which are its lasers, to build a map inside its mind, which is its computer. Once it has that reference map, it can freely navigate from any origin to any destination inside of the mapped parameters.

"The interface of the OTTO app - the software that centrally manages and controls the OTTO fleet of vehicles - abstracts away any complexities about self-driving vehicles and provides a point and click, drag and drop interface.

"Users can let OTTO behave the way that it wants so that it autonomously navigates from point A to point B in whatever it decides to be the optimal path, or rules can be set so that it is more predictable, such as setting up one way zones, restriction zones or speed limitations.

"By offering this type of interface with intelligent technology, we are providing our clients with a flexibility in operation that traditional technology is incapable of doing.

"Both the OTTO 100 and OTTO 1500 have integrated industrial safety-rated lidar sensors. The parts meet ANSI B56 standard and the solution has been third party reviewed. But what we are most proud of is that one of our clients, who is a leader in the automotive space, has certified OTTO 1500 to operate and navigate on manned paths. So rather than treating it like a vehicle or a fork truck, they are treating it like a member of the workforce so it can navigate and move around its human partners.

"The OTTO vehicles also speak to each other, so they know where all members of the self-driving fleet are at all times.

"Made with all-metal construction, the OTTO 1500 has a payload capacity of 1,500 kg, which is roughly 3,400 lbs, and the OTT 100 has a capacity of 100 kg, roughly 125 lbs. Each vehicle comes with multiple configurations, spanning conveyors to lifts, to fit the needs of the customer's operation.

"OTTO offers an opportunity for our customers to take a leap forward into Industry 4.0 with a solution that is not disruptive to existing processes and facility layouts.

"OTTO is intelligent, safe and purpose built for industry, which can help to increase efficiencies, reduce operational costs, and maintain the flexibility needed in a continuously evolving operation."

For more information contact:

OTTO Motors, a division of Clearpath

1425 Strasburg Rd. Suite 2A

Kitchener, ON N2R 1H2

Canada

800-301-3863

info@ottomotors.com

www.ottomotors.com