Why Choose BlueBotics - “They Opened up the Future” says Toyota Automated Logistics [Case Study]

When customers of Toyota Automated Logistics (formerly Bastian Solutions) began to demand more flexibility than its magnetically guided AGVs could offer, its team turned to BlueBotics. The result? A highly successful collaboration through which our ANT natural feature navigation has enabled new use cases to be addressed and new vehicle formats to be developed, leading to sustained long-term growth.

Toyota Automated Logistics is a global partner for integrated warehouse automation. Combining the talents of three group companies – Bastian Solutions, Vanderlande’s Warehousing business and viastore – Toyota Automated Logistics is an integrated automation hub delivering scalable systems, intelligent software and life-cycle services as well as designing and delivering world-class distribution and production solutions. Toyota Automated Logistics (then Bastian Solutions) began working with BlueBotics in 2016.

Watch a video interview with Toyota Automated Logistics' Autonomous Vehicle (AV) team

Why choose BlueBotics? [Video transcript]

Michael Marcum – Senior Director, Autonomous Vehicles: “Bastian Solutions is first and foremost a systems integrator, and part of the Toyota group of companies.

“In Georgetown, Kentucky, we focus on autonomous vehicle solutions and to be able to bring the right solution to the customer, in many cases, we develop our own AGVs.

“Our history in autonomous vehicles dates pretty far back and all that history is based in magnetic path following primarily.

“While that's highly useful and extremely robust, there are many applications in material movement where you need to move in very discreet and unique ways in the same space. And with magnetic path following that is not possible. And with the more complex solutions that we were asked to do, we needed a new technology that could allow us to make multiple different moves in the same space. 

“There are many applications in material movement where you need to move in very discreet and unique ways in the same space”

“So, this really kind of honed us in on this natural feature or SLAM approach seeming to be the best option, where we could use the existing safety scanners to understand our localization in space. And that led us to a very select handful of companies that we could partner with to test.”

“And at the end of that testing we concluded that BlueBotics was the right partner for us.”

Cory Franklin – Engineering Manager, Autonomous Vehicles: “When working with the ANT lab software, the ability to create the map and then create your own routes inside the ANT lab software is super simple — it’s just the click of a button, unlike the magnetic guidance where you had to rip tape up and then relay it. Everything is just super simple, easy to work with, and very efficient.

Bastian Solutions’ adoption of ANT natural feature navigation means its team spends significantly less time ripping up and relaying magnetic tape.

“The major improvement for commissioning on-site has been the time that it takes to install these vehicles. So manual labor has gone down tremendously and saved a lot of time on-site.”

Marcum: “With natural feature nav, our concern was, could we potentially suffer if the environment moved or changed much? Would we lose navigation capability? And with others that we tested, we found that was the case. But with BlueBotics, we found that it was robust against the environment changing.

“Manual labor has gone down tremendously and saved a lot of time on-site”

“By working with BlueBotics, it's unlocked some new things that we could do, that we previously couldn't do with magnetic guidance… even some new products that we were able to develop, like a counterbalance forklift or a pallet truck that's fully autonomous. This was really not possible with magnetic guidance.

“We couldn't take different pathways into picking the product into the different pick and place points … with this natural feature navigation that BlueBotics brought to bear, we could do all these types of applications. So really BlueBotics opened up the future to us.”

Franklin: “The item that's impressed me the most with BlueBotics is the ability to continue to innovate. They are always pushing the boundaries and developing new ANT lab/ANT server features.

“Here at Bastian, we use the ANT server software in many different ways - from basic controls with bits and bytes, to conveyor belt systems or robot cells, to more complex systems where we have 96 vehicles running and we use the API call structure with our middleware.

“Making simulations is very important for us to make it efficient on-site. We are able to lay out the routes, we're able to lay out the traffic controls, and test all this, whether that be one vehicle or 40 vehicles.”

Working with BlueBotics enabled Bastian’s team to develop new products that were not possible with magnetic guidance, such as its popular CB18 counterbalanced forklift AGV.

Marcum: “BlueBotics has been amazing at providing support to us. Their ticketing system, their knowledge base, the information they provide to us, but I think most importantly, just that they care about our customers and they listen to us.”

Franklin: “You can submit a ticket anytime, and typically you are answered within one business day. So, the support has been great.”

Marcum: “That cultural fit we felt from the beginning, with BlueBotics, has sustained through all the years of working with them. There was a passion to bring value to the market and not just valuation to their company.

“There was a passion to bring value to the market and not just valuation to their company”

“We see that they care about our customers. They'll ask us about the applications and what are some of the problems you're struggling with, and how can we potentially help you? This is sort of our attitude as well. And to have somebody come alongside us that sort of believes and thinks the way we do about solving these problems, that was really refreshing.

“I'm very appreciative of being able to grow that long-term with them.

We would like to thank the team at Bastian Solutions for taking the time to share their opinions with us. To discuss working with BlueBotics, get in touch here. Or explore Bastian’s automated vehicles here on ANTdriven.com.