Chinese PV and solar equipment brand LEAPTING has taken the wraps off its new, battery-powered Auto-Navigation Forklift Robot (AFR) designed to speed up the installation of large, utility-scale solar power projects.

The newest member in a growing lineup of fully autonomous solar construction and maintenance robots, the latest LEAPTING AFR was revealed earlier this week at a solar technology conference in Dubai, where the heavy-duty, fully autonomous and battery-powered tracked forklift was called the “missing link” in solar material handling for its ability to delivers solar module pallets directly from terminals or laydown yards to installation rows without the need to put either a human operator or flagman in harm’s way.

“The AFR combines GPS-RTK, laser-based simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), and 3D computer vision to locate pallets, identify fork-hole coordinates in real time, and auto-plan insertion paths,” the company said, in a statement. “It further features 360-degree multi-line LiDAR, intelligent obstacle avoidance, and a three-tier braking system.”

The AFR uses a 48 V, 400 Ah lithium battery with a nominal capacity of 19.2 kWh, sending power to a pair of electric drive motors mounted high in the track. The combination is reportedly good for about 10 total hp and a full eight hours of continuous operation under “standard” operating conditions – more than enough, in other words, to handle a full day’s work.

) of solar and PV materials per load across some of the most demanding job sites you can think, from desert sand and gravel to uneven, muddy, and icy ground, giving the company a product that could, conceivably, be deployed just about anywhere tomorrow.

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