The company was approached by International Airlines Group (IAG) to use its driverless expertise to develop the world’s first autonomous baggage carrying dolly. Trials started in March and have seen an existing dolly converted using LIDAR and GPS technology into a self-driving, electric vehicle that promises to increase the speed of loading and unloading luggage at airports throughout the world.
The adapted dolly has been moving around Terminal 5 at Heathrow and is now also operating in the baggage handling area. It was designed, developed and manufactured at Aurrigo’s advanced engineering centre in Coventry and the firm will now embark on a global marketing programme, contacting the world’s airports and airlines about retrofitting existing dollies to make them fully autonomous - and to explore production of a new range of super lightweight versions for extended operational performance.
