Aurrigo unveils autonomous heavy lift vehicle

Auto-Cargo was unveiled yesterday (April 2, 2025) at Aurrigo HQ in Coventry as part of a project with Innovate UK, the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV), supply chain specialists UPS and East Midlands Airport.

David Keene, CEO of Aurrigo International plc, said: “This latest launch is another milestone moment for our business and extends our footprint in the aviation sector. Working with UPS, we have designed and developed an autonomous vehicle that can transport a standard cargo pallet or two ULDs with a 4500kg onboard capacity and the option of towing an additional 12,000kg trailer.”

Specs and capabilities include an electric drive with twin 18.4kW motors and four-wheel steering. A software algorithm developed at Aurrigo enables Auto-Cargo to function in severe weather, including rain in excess of 50mm per hour.

Furthermore, the vehicle has a maximum speed of 25kmh and can run for up to eight hours on a single charge.

Auto-Cargo follows the 2021 launch of Auto-DollyTug (ADT), a luggage and cargo system for airports designed to navigate autonomously between tasks, collecting and dropping off items using a powered roller deck and the ability to ‘crab’ sideways when docking and parallel parking.

Aurrigo CTO Simon Brewerton explained that Auto-Cargo is ‘completely brand new from the ground up’ but does share some characteristics with ADT 3, Aurrigo’s third generation dolly tug.

“It's a big heavy goods vehicle, and that isn't something that we've built in the past,” he said. “It's a four-wheel drive, four-wheel steering vehicle, so it's a step up in terms of power and traction and load carrying capability.”

He added that the main control systems, drive by wire systems and all the parts that make it a drivable robotic machine are based on the legacy of what Aurrigo has done before. Auto-Cargo’s autonomous system is based on ADT 3’s, so tuned for an airport environment but requiring recalibration for the bigger footprint of the vehicle.

Auto-Cargo – which can be driven manually if required – will now move to East Midlands Airport in a project to move heavy cargo loads to and from aircraft for UPS.

Jim Sargent, automotive engineering manager, fleet connectivity and technology at UPS said: “We need to look at what sort of benefits that technology may be able to bring. Sometimes it can be soft benefits [such as] employee experience or improving working environments. When you get to the real tangible benefits, when you can actually see efficiencies and you can see layers of safety and compliance added, that's when the wish list of any technology for UPS starts to really get ticked off. I believe this project…that we're embarking on at the moment, is really it's going to tick those boxes.”