Helping the construction of smart ports, Sany International unmanned electric card completes the first test

A truck steadily enters the container yard and is accurately positioned to the loading and unloading area. After the automated field bridge completes the loading accurately and quickly, it travels to other working areas. Seemingly ordinary dock work scenes, the whole process can not see people. In the empty cab, the steering wheel is controlled by an experienced old driver, allowing the huge container truck to travel precisely on the designated route.

Sany International Unmanned Electric Set Card

A few days ago, such a scene full of sci-fi colors was staged in the trial site of the Sany Haigong Terminal under the head of China's leading port machinery manufacturer, Sany International (00631.HK). The author learned from Sany Offshore that the company has successfully completed the on-site testing of a new generation of unmanned electric cards in recent days, which also indicates that the company will officially enter the port unmanned transportation market.

Unmanned cards are the best choice!

It is understood that there are currently three types of horizontal transportation methods in the mainstream of smart ports, namely AGV, unmanned straddle carrier and unmanned electric truck. Dr. Tang, director of the Trinity Haigong Smart Port Research Institute, believes that for most port terminals, unmanned cards are the most economical and easiest to implement horizontal transportation solutions.

Wisdom port

“Compared to the other two methods, the unmanned card has low requirements on the site and port infrastructure. In the relatively semi-closed area of ​​the dock, the environment is relatively fixed, which is conducive to the realization of driverless technology.” Dr. Tang told the author, “Set Cards are high-volume products with low component costs, and even the cost of unmanned control systems and sensors is much lower than professional equipment such as AGVs and straddle carriers."

According to Dr. Tang, the unmanned card needs to solve three problems: First, the wire-controlled chassis is controlled by a computer, and needs to complete the access control of the computer to the throttle, steering and braking system; second, the environment-aware technology. Through the dozens of sensors on the body, millimeter wave radar, laser radar and camera, the truck can be used to raise the eye to complete the recognition of roads, vehicles and obstacles, achieving precise positioning and control of centimeter level; third, motion planning and path navigation Intelligent AI is required to construct high-precision vector maps to model and control global and local special actions.

“It is like a human brain. It has to make various decisions about sudden situations such as deceleration, braking or detours, and provide optimal operation routes to meet the needs of horizontal transportation in closed areas of the port.” Dr. Tang believes that Compared with ordinary electric cards, unmanned cards are more difficult to develop and have higher technical barriers.

Do a better understanding of the port!

Some professionals in the port industry told the author that in the port area, the trucks that work are interacting with large machinery and need to be fully integrated into the terminal production business process. Due to the highly dynamic environment of the port area, the gap between the open road and the open road is large, and it is impossible to achieve precise positioning by a single sensor. Moreover, the signal interference of ships and shore bridges and metal containers can lead to difficulties in accurate positioning. Therefore, the portless unmanned card has very high precision requirements.

“The positioning and control accuracy must be about 2 cm in order to achieve accurate container hoisting with the automated shore bridge.” In Dr. Tang’s view, it is not enough to have ordinary driverless technology, 20 cm compared to the open road. The positioning accuracy, the unmanned port transportation requirements are much higher, it is necessary to have a deep understanding of the port operation mode, it is possible to do the unmanned card.

The author learned in the interview that the unmanned card has inherent advantages in terms of labor cost, safety and operational efficiency. According to Dr. Tang, the traditional card requires three drivers per car for long-term high-intensity and full-load operation, while an unmanned card-based engineer can control 3-4 devices.

"According to the normal working time, a container terminal with an annual throughput of 2 million TEUs requires more than 30 million yuan per year for the truck driver's labor costs." Dr. Tang told the author that the unmanned card can not only solve the "difficulty of recruiting workers". As well as the safety problems caused by long-term continuous high-intensity operation, it can also realize automatic docking with shore bridges and field bridges, reduce manual intervention, achieve higher precision, and faster loading and unloading speed, which can further improve work efficiency.

“Under the wave of port intelligence and unmanned, the unmanned market for container trucks is huge. In the next stage, the company plans to develop a vehicle management dispatch system to realize real-time communication with other facilities in the port, accept mission instructions, and understand the status of the facility. Complete the command and dispatch." Dr. Tang told the author, "At present, Sany Offshore is conducting experiments on the automation of bridges, shore bridges and unmanned electric cards in Zhuhai Port and Qingdao Port. I believe that in the near future, you can see more. The Sany unmanned card is busy in the port. (This article is from Sany)