A group of Fleet Readiness Center East (FRCE) employees got a glimpse of the future recently, when they witnessed a demonstration of driverless transportation vehicles in a parts warehouse at the facility.

More than 20 production controllers, transportation workers, managers and senior leaders watched as an empty electric cart entered the warehouse and wheeled quietly down a wide aisle way. It slowly turned a corner and headed up the next aisle, coming to a smooth stop in front of a waiting forklift, which carefully placed a crate on the back of the cart without a driver in sight.

This demonstration of autonomous vehicle technology was hosted by the Advanced Technology and Innovation (ATI) Team, which is part of the Fleet Support Team (FST) at FRCE. ATI engineers have been working for nearly two years to bring autonomous vehicles to FRCE as a means to reduce downtime and increase efficiency.

“The autonomous forklift and electric cart systems can work together to move material around the depot, such as within the warehouse or between buildings,” said Chase Templeton, Support Equipment and Robotics Technology lead for the ATI Team. “This system would improve the accuracy and efficiency of material handling, while interacting safely with people or other vehicles in the facility.”

The demonstration highlighted the capabilities of an autonomous material handling technology (AMHT) system, which uses a package of sensors that can be installed on conventional forklifts or electric carts to convert them to self-driving vehicles.

“We could take our vehicles that we currently own and operate in various spaces and bolt on a kit that turns them autonomous,” said Templeton. “We would still have the ability to run them with a human, but we could also run them completely autonomously with no interaction at all.”

According to Templeton, operators use a tablet to program the route and task that the vehicle is expected to perform. Sensors mounted on the forklift or cart also prevent collisions and warn pedestrians and drivers of other vehicles to move out of the way.

FRCE Commanding Officer Capt. James Belmont said he could envision using autonomous vehicles to make better use of overnight hours to prepare for the next day’s work.

“We could almost become a 24-hour plant where you have people here during normal working hours, and the third shift becomes the autonomous shift where the big equipment moves happen,” Belmont said. “That way when artisans get to work in the morning, they already have their parts and supplies sitting right there at the work station.”    

According to Gabriel Garcia, FRCE transportation program manager, autonomous vehicles could help eliminate downtime for aircraft maintenance professionals who are waiting for a forklift while transportation personnel are busy at other tasks.

“We have artisans who are moving parts from point A to point B, taking support equipment around or bringing a toolbox out to the aircraft,” Garcia said. “We’re paying that artisan to be an aircraft mechanic or electrician, and having an automated system that can bring the toolbox to the aircraft keeps employees doing the job they’re hired to do.” Garcia said the autonomous vehicle could be used for simple, unplanned tasks along an established route when transportation personnel were not available.

FRCE production control supervisor Shelley Leibensperger-Henry said she is hopeful the autonomous vehicles could help keep items moving through the facility with less physical effort from production controllers.

“When forklifts aren’t available, PCs take large items off incoming carts and move them to wagons or onto other carts,” Leibensperger-Henry said. “An automated system would give them another option to help them transport large or heavy items.”

The ATI Team’s core mission is to identify and develop advanced technology solutions and industrial capabilities to improve the maintenance or engineering operations at FRCE, the FST and customers in the Fleet. The team is a key member of a broader Naval Enterprise Sustainment Technology Team (NESTT) that looks for technology solutions to common challenges that affect the Navy sustainment community. The Department of the Navy’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program has been instrumental in funding NESTT initiatives, which included a number of focus areas that are ripe for technology solutions across the Naval Aviation Enterprise; one of these was robotic material handling. 

Templeton said this demonstration is just the first of several tests the autonomous vehicles will go through before a decision is made whether to adopt the technology at FRCE and other maintenance depots.

“We’re implementing a crawl, walk, run kind of plan,” Templeton said. “We’re going to start with the easiest areas first and then tackle the more complicated processes as we progress the program forward.”

FRCE is North Carolina’s largest maintenance, repair, overhaul and technical services provider, with more than 4,000 civilian, military and contract workers. Its annual revenue exceeds $1 billion. The depot provides service to the fleet while functioning as an integral part of the greater U.S. Navy; Naval Air Systems Command; and Commander, Fleet Readiness Centers.

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