“Up to now, people had to make production adjustments through experience, but now robots with artificial intelligence, analyzing collected data, are able to do it. The technology has developed to that level,”
The factory, on the outskirts of
Its assembly line is designed so that all three types of models — electric; e-Power, which has both a motor and an engine, and those powered by regular combustion engine — can be built on the same line. Each vehicle is equipped with the right powertrain as it moves along the line.
The workers at the factory can focus on more skilled work such as analyzing data collected by the robots, and on maintaining the equipment.
All automakers are working on robotic technology that can increase adaptability and enable them to respond quickly to market demand.
During the tour, giant mechanical arms equipped with large displays shone light from the displays on to the car’s surfaces from various angles so that cameras could detect the tiniest flaws.
A mechanism quickly wound wires around a metal object that looked like a giant spool, a motor part that
Sakamoto said it was difficult to estimate exactly how much the fully automated assembly line will save.
But he said manufacturing needs to adapt to labor shortages, to the coronavirus pandemic and to lower carbon emissions to help mitigate climate change.
A new kind of paint that enables vehicles’ bodies and bumpers to be simultaneously painted and baked reduces energy consumption by 25%, the company says.
Before, vehicle bodies, which are aluminum, and plastic bumpers had to be painted separately at different temperatures.
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