IEN: How are manufacturers using existing technologies in new ways?

Joy: We took standard off the shelf automation components and created a totally new way to convey products in manufacturing plants. We did this by reversing the way conveyors are traditionally built. We took the PLCs, motors, photo eyes, drives and RFID readers, and put them into smart low profile box shaped devices that drive from location to location under battery power. It's called the PowerPallet and it's fast, quiet, clean, and smooth. The installed part of the conveyor is inert track, kind of an erector set that has no moving parts or active components. This makes it easy to install and reconfigure later when production needs change. Having the PowerPallet as the active ingredient also makes the system easier to maintain because the PowerPallets can be removed from the line for maintenance. [Note: photos show PowerPallet open view and front end view.]

IEN: What are the major challenges facing development of these systems?

Joy: Radio communications. We had to find a reliable way to communicate with the PowerPallets to dispatch them from one location to another and to be notified once they arrived. We also needed an RFID system to map out the system so the pallets could navigate around the system autonomously.

IEN: How can they addressed?

Joy: There is a Wireless Device Net product from Omron that fit the bill and gave us the reliability and speed we needed. Another company that had a good RFID system was EMS. Their RFID system gave us the reliability and read speed we needed to go fast without missing tags as the PowerPallets traveled around the system

IEN: What innovations are in store for users?

Joy: We have very effectively accomplished the goals of point to point or station to station movement of products and materials. Our next objective is to develop a storage and retrieval system based on the PowerPallet. In this system a number of PowerPallets would circulate through the multiple levels of a storage system putting away products and being reassigned to retrieve other products before leaving the system. With all these automated vehicles scurrying through the system we believe that we will transcend throughput rates of typical storage and retrieval systems. There will be an improvement in cost and efficiency by having the same devices traveling freely throughout both the manufacturing floor and storage system.

IEN: How are software and equipment being improved in this area?

Joy: Because the PowerPallets have internal software to navigate and produce all the meticulous sequences and timing necessary for basic point to point movement, they only need destination commands to accomplish extensive complicated routing through the system. The main production control software only has to play a simple game of checkers, sending PowerPallets to the next operation in the build plan. Another function of this controller is playing "Amtrak Central," coordinating and optimizing traffic flow to prevent routing conflicts between PowerPallets.

IEN: How can companies integrate smart systems with legacy/traditional parts of the enterprise?

Joy: Because the PowerPallet has real time two way radio communication between it and the main controller, existing machines can, through the main controller, readily handshake with the PowerPallets to detect when a fixture is ready to work on, or signal it when an operation is complete. By carrying an upper fixture plate, accurate alignment of fixtures can be achieved in the traditional way by lifting and pinning the fixture in relation to the existing equipment.