At ProMat 2003, AGV Products announced a marketing alliance with Nuovafima, of Modena, Italy. Together, the companies will market the Nuovafima line of laser-guided automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) and the corresponding vehicle control technology platform.

Especially notable is the ease with which guide paths for the vehicles can be changed with advanced control technology. "Point, click and drag to change an existing path on the screen. It's that simple," says Mats Herrstomer, president of AGV Products. While other systems require many software changes to alter a guide path, the laser-guided vehicle with the advanced control technology allows users to literally sit down and change the guide path in seconds, Herrstomer added.

According to Sandro Zini, area manager of Nuovafima, "this agreement provides us with an established integrator in AGV Products to supply this vehicle line to the North American materials handling market."