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17
2025
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07
AE-iCube High-Throughput Flexible AS/RS
The automotive industry is undergoing a profound transformation driven by consumer demand, a paradigm shift from standardized, high-volume production to mass customization characterized by personalization and multi-variety manufacturing. To meet the expectations of highly personalized vehicles, automotive manufacturers need to be able to efficiently and seamlessly produce a mixed portfolio of different platforms, models, and a vast array of color and configuration combinations.
In this transformation, the paint shop, the most technologically complex and capital-intensive stage of production, bears the brunt of the challenge. The core conflict it must address is how to achieve an optimized, flexible production organization amidst variable capacity demands, order configurations, and upstream/downstream constraints to realize efficient, agile, and green coating production. This requires the body storage system to evolve from a simple "parking lot" into an intelligent regulation hub capable of complex parallel scheduling and dynamic response to production pulses.
To address this challenge, Automotive Engineering Corp. (AE Corp.), leveraging its integrated engineering service capabilities and deep understanding of automotive manufacturing, has pioneered a new generation of smart logistics solutions: the AE-iCube High-Throughput Flexible AS/RS. It is designed to equip clients with the core manufacturing capabilities needed to win in the future.
01 The Physical Cornerstone: A Parallel - Driven Hardware Architecture
The physical architecture of the AE-iCube is the solid foundation for its high throughput and flexibility. It adopts RGV (Rail Guided Vehicle) technology, with "parallel processing" and "decoupled operation" at the core of its design philosophy.
Inside the AS/RS, each level of every aisle is equipped with independently operating high-speed RGVs. These RGVs are lightweight and agile, dedicated to the rapid horizontal storage and retrieval of car bodies on their respective levels. Meanwhile, at both sides of the aisles, independent high-speed lift systems are dedicated to the vertical transport of car bodies between different tiers.
This design, which thoroughly "decouples" horizontal and vertical movements, unleashes immense system potential. It allows multiple tasks to be executed in parallel without conflict: while a lift is transporting a car body from the first floor to the top, all other RGVs on every other level can simultaneously perform their own storage and retrieval tasks. This large-scale parallel processing capability endows the AE-iCube with extremely high system throughput and rapid task response speeds. Furthermore, the distributed architecture of multiple execution units provides inherent system redundancy. Even if a single unit requires maintenance, the overall system operation remains unaffected, ensuring exceptional production continuity and stability.
02 The Intelligent Core: AE - iCube's Precise Scheduling
If the advanced hardware is the robust "skeleton" of the AE-iCube, then its built-in intelligent scheduling system is its brilliant "brain.
The AE-iCube intelligent scheduling system, independently developed by AE Corp., serves as the command center for the entire flexible AS/RS. It seamlessly interfaces with the factory's Manufacturing Execution System (MES) to receive production plans and sequencing orders in real-time, covering all application scenarios within the paint shop. This includes functions such as Tidal Flow Mode, Model/Color Acceleration, Pre-call/Pre-lock, Proportional Retrieval, and Model/Color Grouping. It ensures that the vast number of mobile units operate in a highly coordinated and orderly manner, maximizing the parallel processing power of the physical hardware to deliver "just-in-time, just-in-sequence" bodies to the paint line.
03 Full Lifecycle Empowerment: The Practical Value of Digital Twin
As a company that provides integrated engineering services, AE Corp. deeply integrates cutting-edge Digital Twin technology into the full lifecycle of the AE-iCube solution.
By building a digital model in the virtual world that is an exact replica of the physical AS/RS, it can run extensive simulations to scientifically validate and optimize the system layout, equipment configuration, and control strategies, identifying potential bottlenecks in advance to ensure the solution achieves optimal performance before implementation.
The AE-iCube High-Throughput Flexible AS/RS, with its outstanding flexibility, agility, and scalability, provides a solid physical foundation for executing mass customization strategies. AE Corp. is committed to being a long-term partner for clients in realizing their manufacturing blueprints, joining hands to inject forward-looking concepts into real-world productivity, a partnership defined by Joint Efforts and Shared Benefits.
AE looks forward to collaborating
with industry partners
in building more landmark projects
through innovative technologies!
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