INNOVATIVE LOGISTICS Solution Day 2015

Nominated Supplier – that’s what the total of ten winners in the “Innovative Logistics” competition sponsored by Volkswagen in cooperation with the Institute for Production Management (IPM) can call themselves from now on. And so can the Hamburg based STILL GmbH, a leading supplier of customized intralogistics solutions worldwide. STILL received the award for research results in the shape of an innovative autonomous system solution for intralogistics goods transport in the context of the marion project. Marion stands for MobileAutonomous cooperative Robots In cOmplex value-added chaiNs and is a cooperative project initiated by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi).

Jointly with the IPM, Volkswagen invited innovative logistics and production companies in the automobile industry to the “INNOVATIVE LOGISTICS Solution Day 2015” in the Volkswagen Arena at Wolfsburg on Tuesday and Wednesday, 27th and 28th January. The core of the event was the advertised “Innovative Logistics” competition – an Innovation Scouting for Volkswagen’s factory logistics. From more than 200 entrants Volkswagen Management chose ten winners who had an opportunity to present their projects in an exclusive exhibition area. STILL GmbH, Hamburg, was among this chosen circle, and in Wolfsburg it showed an innovative concept for autonomous, flexible transport processes in intralogistics.

STILL together with the CLAAS, Atos and DFKI companies in the context of the marion project developed an innovative concept for a new generation of autonomous transport trucks. Its development focus was on maximising flexibility while simultaneously minimising user input when using autonomous trucks. In 2013 the STILL development and intralogistics specialists led by Dr. Joachim Tödter, Head of Advanced Development and Intralogistics at STILL, and Gérard Lacher, Head of Intralogistics Systems at STILL, presented for the first time a self-organising operating cycle in which industrial trucks not only fully record and assess the work environment but also communicate in parallel with other trucks and then self-organise their cooperation with them.

For example: a towing tractor receives an order to deliver goods to a station. Based on the available information about the destination station, the truck recognises that there is no provision for manual offloading at that point. It therefore automatically asks for support from other autonomous transport trucks in the fleet. An available reach truck notices the request and offers its help. The towing tractor, together with the reach truck as the unloading robot, then enter into cooperation for a limited time. They both drive in concert to the destination station, where the unloading robot offloads the destination trailer fully automatically, then they disband the cooperation after the work is done – at the same time they automatically plan the optimum route, taking possible obstructions in the room into account.

As well as the exclusive exhibition area for the winners in the innovation competition, the INNOVATIVE LOGISTICS Solution Day 2015 also had an accompanying display by numerous Volkswagen logistics and production partners. Various workshops and guided factory tours were also offered.