Fasten your seatbelts. There will be a lot more driverless vehicles zipping around distribution centers in the very near future. According to a report released by the AGVS Product Section of the Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA), volume for new and expansion systems jumped 50 percent in the first half of 2004. AGVs are driverless vehicles used to move material in the manufacturing and distribution process.

According to MHIA, 72 systems were ordered in the first six months of 2004, compared with 37 a year ago. "It's clear that based on these numbers, manufacturers of automation solutions, namely AGVs, are seeing a substantial interest in this technology and the many benefits companies can achieve through the use of this technology," says Dick Ward, managing executive of MHIA's AGVS Products Section.

In an effort to further boost sales, the AGVS Product Section has released a video to promote AGV technology. The video can be viewed at www.agvssolutions.com.