Nissan's AI-powered factory robots can haul 4,000 pounds — and call each other for backup
Nissan is deploying autonomous mobile robots at its Tennessee factory to handle heavy logistics and improve efficiency. While the initial rollout faced minor traffic issues, the robots are now successfully hauling heavy loads and recharging themselves.
Why it matters
This represents a significant shift in manufacturing automation, demonstrating how AI-driven robotics can optimize supply chains and reallocate human labor to more complex tasks.
Nissan has been ramping up its in-factory AI efforts. Nissan Nissan's Smyrna, Tennessee, plant is using autonomous AI robots to move heavy objects. The rollout will move 64 forklift and tug operators into other plant jobs. This article is part of "How AI Is Changing Everything: Supply Chain," a series on innovations in logistics. Robots can get stuck in traffic, too. Nissan learned that while deploying a fleet of AI-powered robots, called autonomous mobile robots, or AMRs , at its sprawling factory in Smyrna, Tennessee. At one point, the software dispatched two AMRs to the same place at the same time, creating a decidedly futuristic traffic jam. "Of course you wish everything works perfect, out of the box," JS Bolton, Nissan's senior director of manufacturing at the plant, told Business Insider. "But, it doesn't." Teams inside Nissan partnered with software providers and corrected the programming.
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