{"slug": "nissan-s-ai-powered-factory-robots-can-haul-4000-pounds-and-call-each-other-for", "title": "Nissan's AI-powered factory robots can haul 4,000 pounds — and call each other for backup", "summary": "Nissan is deploying AI-powered autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) from OTTO, a Rockwell Automation company, at its Smyrna, Tennessee factory, where the largest model can haul up to 4,190 pounds and travel at 4.5 mph. The robots, which navigate using lidar and cameras, will replace work done by 64 forklift and tug operators, who will be reassigned to other roles. The project is the plant's largest cost-reduction initiative this year, according to Tim Slate, the plant's director of body and stamping.", "body_md": "Robots can get stuck in traffic, too.\n\nNissan learned that while deploying a fleet of AI-powered robots, called [autonomous mobile robots, or AMRs](https://www.businessinsider.com/robots-warehouses-human-workers-startups-investors-amr-fetch-robotics-2022-10), 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.\n\n\"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.\"\n\nTeams inside Nissan partnered with software providers and corrected the programming. Now, the automaker says the robots can haul loads weighing thousands of pounds, recharge themselves, and call in another machine if one falls behind.\n\nNissan is completing the first of six deployment phases over the coming months at the plant where it assembles [the Rogue](https://www.businessinsider.com/nissan-rogue-review-family-suv-controversial-3-cylinder-engine-2024-6), Pathfinder, [Murano](https://www.businessinsider.com/nissan-murano-review-stylish-midsize-suv-new-engine-tech-luxury-2025-4), and Infiniti QX60. More vehicles are set to come to the factory next year, too.\n\nTim Slate, the plant's director of body and stamping, said the project is Smyrna's largest cost-reduction initiative this year.\n\n\"This is the top thing on the list,\" Slate said.\n\n## Nissan's robots are replacing some forklift trips\n\nNissan's new AMRs are made by OTTO, a company owned by Rockwell Automation. The same bots are found on [Ford](https://www.businessinsider.com/ford-uses-ai-cameras-in-factories-prevent-recalls-costly-rework-2025-8), GE, Hershey, and Caterpillar plants, too, according to Rockwell's website.\n\nUnlike automated carts that follow strips of magnetic tape on factory floors, AMRs use lidar, cameras, and other sensors to navigate around people and obstacles. The largest OTTO model can carry roughly 4,190 pounds and travel at about 4.5 mph.\n\nNissan is using the machines inside Smyrna's body shop, where metal components are welded together to form vehicle bodies.\n\nForklift operators still carry racks of components from truck docks to a deployment area. An AMR then drives underneath a rack, raises its platform about 2.5 inches, and carries the components to a worker who loads them into a robotic production cell.\n\n\"We really want our technicians to be focused on adding value to the vehicle,\" Bolton said. \"The customer doesn't care how parts get to the assembly line. What they care about is that it's the highest quality on the assembly line.\"\n\nThe robots communicate with Nissan's production equipment, allowing them to adjust deliveries in real time. If a robotic cell stops working and no longer consumes parts, for example, an AMR can recognize that the station no longer needs a new delivery. If one machine falls behind on a task — called a \"mission\" inside the plant — another can step in.\n\nThe robots themselves have been reliable, Slate said. The harder task has been getting their software to communicate with Nissan's material-flow system and the controllers operating its production equipment.\n\nEmployees for Powerhouse Controls, the automation systems integration supplier, have been working at the plant around the clock, sometimes seven days a week, as Nissan completes the rollout. Forklift operators remain available to move parts whenever the automated system has a problem.\n\n\"We can't have downtime,\" Slate said.\n\n## Sixty-four workers will move into different jobs\n\nOnce the rollout is complete, the machines will take over work currently performed by 64 forklift and tug operators.\n\nThe workers will stay at Nissan, but their current roles will disappear, the company says. Nissan has opened opportunities for those workers to bid for openings elsewhere in the plant, including jobs more directly involved in building vehicles. Some may receive training for positions involving industrial robots and other equipment.\n\n\"These individuals, frankly, won't have a role,\" Slate said. \"But they will still have a job here.\"\n\nNissan said it will not backfill its existing material-handling positions, allowing it to reduce overall labor costs.\n\nEmployees have had mixed reactions. Slate said he notified workers on both shifts about four months before the transition and told them they could begin seeking other positions.\n\n\"Initially, as you would imagine, it kind of didn't go so well,\" Slate said. \"Initially, all they heard was, 'Our job's not going to be here.'\"\n\nSome workers remain resistant to the change, he said. Others have embraced it, including a longtime forklift operator who recently stopped Slate in the factory to excitedly share that he was moving to another shop.\n\nThe automaker says that many of the new positions are better suited for \"upward mobility,\" including, potentially, higher pay.\n\n[Nissan has previously told Business Insider](https://www.businessinsider.com/nissan-factory-ai-canton-altima-frontier-2026-8) that its factory technology isn't intended to eliminate jobs. Victor Taylor, Nissan's divisional vice president of manufacturing for the Americas, said that the company wanted to automate \"mundane tasks that are really antiquated for a human being to be performing.\"\n\n## It's all part of Nissan's turnaround\n\nNissan is under pressure to lower costs as it works through a broader sales turnaround. The company's first-half 2026 sales were up 9.6% compared to the year before, when [deliveries dropped by 6.5%](https://www.businessinsider.com/nissan-honda-call-off-50-billion-merger-2025-2).\n\nIn a separate interview, Chris Reed, Nissan's regional senior vice president of research and development, told Business Insider the company is examining the total cost of producing a vehicle, including supply chain, warranty, development, and labor costs.\n\n\"We're pushing on everything at the same time,\" Reed said, including \"the number of minutes it takes to build the car.\"\n\nBolton said making Smyrna more efficient could help the US plant compete for additional vehicle production, particularly as automakers look to manufacture more cars closer to American buyers.\n\n\"We want to be part of Nissan's recovery,\" Bolton said. \"We see being cost competitive in Smyrna as our contribution to that.\"\n\nNissan is now studying whether AMRs or automated forklifts could handle components inside Smyrna's stamping operation. It is also considering bringing similar robots into general assembly, where workers install most of a vehicle's parts, with potential projects beginning as soon as 2027.\n\nThe challenge will be deciding when the technology is sufficiently capable, affordable, and integrable enough to justify the investment.\n\n\"Any year you don't invest, you're leaving savings on the table,\" Bolton said. \"At the same time, the capability is improving.\"", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/nissan-s-ai-powered-factory-robots-can-haul-4000-pounds-and-call-each-other-for", "canonical_source": "https://www.businessinsider.com/nissans-ai-robots-smyrna-tennessee-2026-9", "published_at": "2026-09-04 09:26:01+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-09-04 09:52:02.055540+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["robotics", "artificial-intelligence", "ai-products"], "entities": ["Nissan", "OTTO", "Rockwell Automation", "Smyrna, Tennessee", "JS Bolton", "Tim Slate", "Powerhouse Controls"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/nissan-s-ai-powered-factory-robots-can-haul-4000-pounds-and-call-each-other-for", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/nissan-s-ai-powered-factory-robots-can-haul-4000-pounds-and-call-each-other-for.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/nissan-s-ai-powered-factory-robots-can-haul-4000-pounds-and-call-each-other-for.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/nissan-s-ai-powered-factory-robots-can-haul-4000-pounds-and-call-each-other-for.jsonld"}}