Chinese solar equipment maker LEAPTING has unveiled a battery-powered autonomous forklift designed for utility-scale solar construction. The Auto-Navigation Forklift Robot (AFR) was introduced this week at a solar technology conference in Dubai, according to Electrek.
The tracked machine carries up to 3,000 kilograms (about 6,600 pounds) of PV materials and is built for rough terrain, including desert sand, gravel, mud, and ice. It runs on a 48-volt, 400 amp-hour lithium battery, giving it roughly eight hours of continuous operation, and features IP67 all-weather protection.
LEAPTING says the AFR uses GPS-RTK, laser-based simultaneous localization and mapping, and 3D computer vision to locate pallets and plan fork insertion automatically. It also has 360-degree multi-line LiDAR, intelligent obstacle avoidance, and a three-tier braking system, allowing it to work without a human operator or flagman on site.
The company claims the robot can mount modules on trackers every 40 seconds—three to five times faster than manual labor—with placement accuracy under plus or minus one millimeter. These figures come from the manufacturer and were first reported by Electrek, which did not independently test the machine.