Automated Terminal Tractor
VDL recently delivered the first driverless truck to logistics company Katoen Natie in Singapore. This is a special vehicle that is used for the transport of trailers at the Katoen Natie branch in Southeast Asia. The software and the equipment for automatic driving have been prepared at VDL in the Netherlands. The truck was then assembled at the VDL branch in Singapore. The first driving tests were successful. The functionalities of the autonomous vehicle will be extended until the spring of 2018. For example, the number of loading and unloading locations. After that, Katoen Natie will purchase another 11 of these types of driverless trucks. "By establishing an innovation centre in Singapore, VDL is demonstrating its ambition," says director Koen Cardon of Katoen Natie Singapore.
Satellite navigation
The trucks will first drive on the site of a petrochemical company, which is equipped with electronic markers. In a second phase, the trucks will be deployed on the Singapore island of Jurong, where they will have to find their way with the use of satellite navigation. Eventually, the trucks in Singapore will participate in regular traffic. The driverless trucks are a solution for the activities of Katoen Natie in Singapore: local drivers are hard to find and the government wants to reduce the number of foreign drivers.
"It's great to see that our AGVs make logistics more efficient and safer and can increasingly fit better into existing logistics chains", says manager Karel Smits of VDL Automated Vehicles from Singapore, where the VDL concept is presented today..