A novel robotic handling device integrated on a freight urban robotic vehicle

FURBOT (Freight Urban RoBOTic vehicle, n. 285055) is a project funded by the European Union within the 7th Framework Programme. Its aim is to develop a new concept architecture of light duty full electrical vehicle for efficient sustainable urban freight transport. In this article, the authors present a novel robotic handling system especially designed for the FURBOT vehicle. The handling system has been designed in order to perform the loading/unloading operation in an autonomous way, without any manpower. Using this system, it will be possible to handle two Euro Pallet (800x1200mm) or dedicated boxes with identical dimensions. The load will be picked up directly from the ground or a step with a maximum height of 150mm. An additional aid is given by the active suspensions of the vehicle, which allow lowering the chassis and facilitate the loading/unloading operation.