Ford’s Van Dyke Transmission Plant in Sterling Heights will welcome an unusual visitor in August.
A 70-pound, dog-like robot, nicknamed Fluffy, will spend two days at the plant in Macomb County.
The yellow, battery-powered robot will be there to conduct a laser scan on a portion of the plant floor. Scans are done to prepare for retooling, and if this pilot project is successful, it could allow for more frequent scans and possibly help the Dearborn automaker bring vehicles to market sooner, a potential advantage in a hypercompetitive auto environment.
“We design and build the plant. After that, over the years, changes are made that rarely get documented,” Mark Goderis, Ford digital engineering manager, said in a release. “By having the robots scan our facility, we can see what it actually looks like now and build a new engineering model.”
Ford is leasing Fluffy and a similar robot, named Spot, from Boston Dynamics for a year. It won’t disclose the price, but the company said the total cost would be less than the almost $300,000 for a typical plant scan. Boston Dynamics lists the price to purchase a robot like the ones Ford is leasing at $74,500.
Spot won’t make the trip to the Van Dyke plant. Only Fluffy and a third, round robot called Scouter, which Fluffy can ride on to conserve energy, will be there.
“We used to use a tripod, and we would walk around the facility stopping at different locations, each time standing around for 5 minutes waiting for the laser to scan,” Goderis said. “Scanning one plant could take two weeks. With Fluffy’s help, we are able to do it in half the time.”
Ford has been trying out Fluffy and Spot at its Advanced Manufacturing Center in Redford and the UAW-Ford Technical Training Center in Lincoln Park. The visit to the Van Dyke facility will be the first at a manufacturing plant. It was selected, Goderis said, because the plant has not been scanned for some time, the union is interested and the workforce there is open to new technology.
Goderis said part of the pilot project includes gauging worker reaction, how disruptive the robot might be to the workforce. Many people who come into contact with the robot want to take pictures of it and post them on social media, for instance.
“When I first saw it, there was a coolness factor to it,” Goderis said, but others, he noted, got a little freaked out because of its canine similarities.
Fluffy, which has five cameras, has proven adept in all kinds of situations, including walking on steps and it can right itself if it falls. It’s also very maneuverable, part of the attraction for using it. It’s designed to prevent collisions by staying a set distance away from objects, and it’s controlled by a device with joysticks similar to something that might be used for gaming.
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Fluffy’s handler, Paula Wiebelhaus, Ford digital manufacturing engineer, said controlling her charge, which can move at up to 3 mph, has actually been easy.
“Considering I’ve never had a game controller in my hand before, at first I’m not going to lie, it was kind of intimidating to be in control of a dog that was this high tech, but he is easy to operate,” she said in a video interview.
Looking beyond the Van Dyke plant, future projects for the robots could involve using them in confined spaces in an effort to boost safety, Goderis said.
Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @_ericdlawrence.
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