At this high-efficiency solar cell production base in Yiwu, Zhejiang, Aiko was the first to deploy a complete set of automated production machines and intelligent material handling robots, achieving fully automated, intelligent operations across the entire process—from material issuing to line exit, and through all eight processes including texturing, diffusion, laser, etching and annealing. This has greatly improved the operating efficiency of solar cell manufacturing and created a benchmark "lights-out factory" case for manufacturing upgrades in the PV industry.
Manufacturing upgrades become the PV industry's "standard," as the "ace handler" joins the workshop
The global energy transition and China's "dual carbon" policy, among other factors, have driven the rapid growth of new energy industries such as PV and lithium batteries, and have driven the upgrading of industrial and commercial supply chains as a whole. New energy companies are in turn upgrading their workshops and the warehouses that support them with automation and intelligence. SLAM-navigation autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) are therefore being adopted in production logistics at an accelerating pace.
Aiko, a world-leading manufacturer of high-efficiency monocrystalline PERC cells, had already deployed automated and intelligent production and handling equipment and achieved some application results. However, as product models and capacity requirements kept expanding, Aiko continued to upgrade its crystalline silicon cell manufacturing technology and production supply capability in new plants, further iterating the corresponding equipment and systems and continuously optimizing operating efficiency.
In response to new energy companies' strong emphasis on operating efficiency and stability (the equipment must support 24-hour continuous production), ATOMIX's SLAM robots have achieved technical breakthroughs and equipment and process improvements in map editing, highly robust SLAM positioning algorithms, high-precision docking and large-scale fleet scheduling. It is precisely because of its leading technical strength in "AI + logistics" that ATOMIX's SLAM-navigation AMRs won Aiko's favor and became the "ace handler" of the high-efficiency solar cell production workshop.
140 units! Among the largest SLAM robot fleet deployments in China
For this project, ATOMIX customized 140 laser SLAM-navigation AMRs for Aiko, including 132 wafer basket transport AMRs and 8 stacking cassette transport AMRs, and achieved large-scale fleet scheduling in confined spaces. Project highlights include:
(1) 140 SLAM-navigation AMRs working simultaneously in crowded space: supporting a daily capacity of more than 3 million wafers
(2) High-precision docking: first-attempt docking success rate above 99.5%, equipment docking accuracy of ±3 mm
(3) Highly flexible solution that ensures operational stability: even if multiple AMRs fail, the system can promptly coordinate other AMRs to take over
(4) Custom AMR model development: the many complex requirements of actual production call for custom development at the robot hardware level to match the production site environment and needs. ATOMIX's SLAM robots deliver stable, solid performance and avoid the slipping problems caused by water sprayed on the workshop floor
(5) AI-algorithm-based large-scale fleet scheduling: "single-lane bridge," "alley" and "laser navigation algorithm" approaches solve problems such as congestion and getting lost when SLAM-navigation AMRs move among multiple machines in the workshop
(6) A series of high-level application achievements: beyond docking accuracy, the AMRs achieve navigation and positioning accuracy within ±10 mm, a rated payload of ≥300 kg and a rated-load travel speed of 0-1.2 m/s, and support 7×24 continuous operation
Through intelligent co-design of hardware and software, the solution helped Aiko increase capacity, with daily wafer capacity exceeding 3 million wafers, and supported its production of higher-conversion-efficiency monocrystalline bifacial PERC cells in a high-grade cleanroom environment. In addition, because ATOMIX's AMRs offer greater stability, docking accuracy and optimized scheduling strategies, they greatly improved the overall operating efficiency of Aiko's workshop. The project ranks among the largest SLAM robot fleet deployments in China's PV sector and has a marked benchmark effect in the new energy industry.