Even though the Olympics have just wrapped up, I still find myself thinking about the grace and precision of ice dancing. That’s probably why this video of German manufacturer SEW’s new factory reminds me so much of the sport. Like skaters, the autonomous guided vehicles (AGVs) gliding through SEW’s plant in Brumath, France needs to follow precise choreography. And on the factory floor as on the ice, a single misstep can have major consequences. Think line stoppages, collisions, and other safety issues.
SEW is a leading manufacturer of drive systems and automation technology. For its smart factory in Brumath, the company needed ultra-reliable connectivity for the AGVs that transport materials throughout the production process. While Wi-Fi performs well for factory IT devices like tablets and programmable logic controllers, it isn’t designed to deliver uninterrupted connectivity to mobile robots roaming between coverage zones. A brief lapse while the connection is handed off to a different access point can cause an AGV to stop in its tracks. That’s important for safety, but it can bring production to a halt. Another limitation of Wi-Fi for mobile robots is that RF interference from metal structures, densely packed pallets, or machinery can block signals.
SEW found its solution for AGVs in Cisco Ultra-Reliable Wireless Backhaul (URWB), integrated into the same Cisco access points that provide Wi-Fi. SEW’s head of industrial IT, Michel de Hatten, says, “Cisco URWB manages roaming in a fundamentally different way than Wi-Fi, allowing our mobile equipment to stay connected without interruption, even while moving.” What are those differences? First, when a mobile asset moves to a new coverage zone, URWB makes the new connection before breaking the previous connection.
Second, AGVs can communicate around interference and obstacles because of URWB’s multi-path operations (MPO) technology. High-priority packets are duplicated up to eight times and sent over redundant paths, over uncorrelated frequencies, and at multiple times within a few milliseconds. With spatial, frequency, and time diversity, messages to and from SEW’s AGVs arrive reliably—one way or another.
Bonus points: Not only does URWB connect SEW’s AGVs more reliably than Wi-Fi, but it provides coverage with about 50% fewer access points.
Any way you score it, SEW is achieving gold-medal factory performance with Cisco URWB.
To learn more, check out the case study
