Changde CRRC New Energy Vehicle Co., LTD Launches 5G+ Dark Smart Factory

BEIJING, Dec. 16, 2020/PRNewswire/ -- Changde CRRC New Energy Vehicle Co., LTD, a 3rd-tier subsidiary of CRRC Corporation Limited (CRRC, 1766.HK), signed a cooperative framework agreement with China Telecom's Changde Branch in Changde, Hunan province. As part of the agreement, both parties will leverage their respective advantages and resources to carry out in-depth cooperation in the field of the Industrial Internet, promoting the in-depth integration of the internet in industrial manufacturing, the application of informatization and industrial technology, and the building of a 5G+ dark factory, setting a national benchmark for 5G+ industrial internet intelligent manufacturing.

From the raw materials to the final products, CRRC's dark smart factory oversees the end-to-end processing, transport, and inspection processes, entirely in an unmanned environment. Its operations are wholly managed by machines, replacing the need for manpower, lowering production costs, and improving production efficiency.

The dark factory's most important component is its autonomous decision-making system, leveraging big data, analysis engines, dynamic knowledge graphs, natural language understanding, and self-adaptive capabilities. By collecting dynamic and multi-dimensional information, it is able to intelligently identify, assess, and reason complex problems, making forward-looking, real-time decisions. The system is also able to self-optimize, self-learn, and adapt.

5G+ Fully Automated Storage
The factory deploys a fully automated warehouse and AGV sorting and distribution system, in addition to a 5G digital transport system, automatic data correction of unit cargo, and other intelligent warehouse systems. This fully exceeds the capacities offered by the traditional ERP system, and realizes the automation and information management of warehouses.

5G+ Transport Robot
The factory has 5G transport robots that are mainly used for logistics, delivering parts to production lines. Thanks to 5G, many of the transport robots are guided by a powerful brain that enables them to independently create the best system structure according to the requirements of their tasks, realizing AGV cluster control, collaborative control, and cloud control, therefore greatly improving transport efficiency. Moreover, it is able to realize parts tracing and management.

5G+ Welding Robot
Thanks to welding robot data collected through 5G, real-time visualization and maintenance of welding machines is achieved, in addition to predictive maintenance. The system provides overall visualization technology, combining signal processing, inference and prediction, and multimedia to showcase the entire welding process. The first batch of one thousand 5G welding robots will soon be launched.

5G+ Robotic Forklifts
The 5G-empowered robotic forklifts collect data through 5G modules, which enables it to manage forklift positions and monitor its energy consumption, operation duration, fault alarm, and other information through the intelligent platform in real-time. This helps improve scheduling efficiency enormously. The factory's system of mutual human-machine cooperation enables both to complement each other on different levels.

5G+ Autonomous Driving
5G technology is leveraged to monitor operations and realize unmanned driving, eliminating the need for employees on-site. As a result, it is able to ensure zero damage in a safe environment while boosting efficiency by 25 percent. This "super factory" is equipped with nearly 100 large-scale 5G unmanned driving vehicles to save energy and increase efficiency.

5G+ Patrol Robot
The 5G patrol robot conducts inspections round-the-clock, deploying a comprehensive intelligent security platform that can collect and analyze information acquired from both its operations and the outside world. With this data, it assesses and identifies its own actions. The robot is able to realize obstacle avoidance, autonomous charging, fire warning, AI facial recognition, epidemic prevention and disinfection, abnormal warning, environmental awareness, and more, serving as the ideal replacement for security guards and improving the factory's overall security across the board.

About CRRC
CRRC (CRRC Corporation Limited) is one of the world's largest rail transportation equipment companies, with annual sales revenue of RMB 229.01 billion in 2019. It has provided products and services to more than 100 countries and regions, and established 15 international R&D centers. CRRC has set up local manufacturing bases in the US, Australia, South Africa, Malaysia, Turkey, India, among other countries. As of 2019, CRRC has ranked 359th among the Fortune Global 500 companies. For more information, please visit http://www.crrcgc.cc/en.