Industry Addendum: Innovation
Toyota and ANA test autonomous towing trucks
March 1st 2019
Global leader in the manufacturing of lift trucks by market share, Toyota Industry Corporation, and All Nippon Airways (ANA) are conducting a trial of Japan’s first autonomous towing tractors at Saga International Airport in the last two weeks of this month. Read More »
The trial tractor will operate over a distance of 100 metres, the same distance between the baggage sorting areas and landed aircraft at the southern Japan airport.
ANA senior vice president, Shigaru Hattori, said that “efficiency has long been one of ANA’s main goals and these autonomous tractors are helping us achieve our targets.”
The towing tractors use 2D/3D LiDAR squared sensors to automatically detect objects in their path and adjust their course. A road pattern matching system and a GPS system are housed in the tractors to calculate their location and assist in route guidance.
