Tag: forklift technology|IT|materials handling

Hamburg-based intralogistics provider STILL has entered into partnership with the innovative software manufacturer SYNAOS to help explore opportunities around the VDA 5050 communication interface.

Automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) have become indispensable in the modern logistics world. “Automation is increasingly finding its way into our warehouses and production halls – in all sectors and in all processes,” says Florian Kratzer, International Key Account Manager Automated Solutions. AGVs impress above all with their individuality and speed with which they automatically transport materials. But to make these AGVs suitable for the mass market, a uniform interface is needed, such as the VDA 5050.

A uniform interface is the only way to control and coordinate trucks across manufacturers. “At STILL, we believe that a standardised interface will be essential in the future in order to continue to serve the needs of our customers,” adds Kratzer.

The solution is provided by the standardised VDA 5050 communication interface. With its support, order management or traffic management of heterogeneous fleets, for example, can be standardised within a single user interface. The performance of the interface was demonstrated, among other things, during the AGV Mesh-Up events under the auspices of the VDMA Materials Handling and Intralogistics Association.

STILL had already participated in this event last year, which took place as part of the IFOY Test Camp, and together with various manufacturers demonstrated how a wide range of driverless transport vehicles can communicate with each other via the VDA 5050 interface, navigate safely and efficiently in a common area and complete transport tasks in a network. “During this test event last year, we very successfully integrated vehicles from different manufacturers with very different navigation technologies and transport capabilities into a homogeneous unit under the control system of the KION Group, to which STILL also belongs,” says the STILL expert.

AGVs leaving the niche

Successful demonstrations such as the AGV Mesh-Up show that driverless transport systems will no longer be niche solutions in the future, but suitable for the mass market. Kratzer: “STILL has the vision of bringing automated solutions to the general public. This will enable us to cater for long-term, high-volume customer enquiries that require large automated fleets.”

By adapting the group’s internal control system software for AGVs as well as the vehicle-integrated software to the VDA 5050 interface, STILL also wants to consolidate its competence to be able to integrate other suppliers’ products into its system as well as to offer series-produced AGVs that can be integrated into other suppliers’ control systems via the VDA 5050, such as those of the software manufacturer SYNAOS.

Partnership with SYNAOS

The fact that VDA 5050 is not only used at events and for demonstration purposes is made evident by the partnership that STILL has entered into with the innovative software manufacturer SYNAOS. This cooperation not only serves to implement and roll out state-of-the-art automation projects in practice, but above all to offer customers the opportunity to choose both the software and the hardware themselves and to bring the two together individually – exactly what the VDA 5050 promises.

Dr Wolfgang Hackenberg, CEO & Co-Founder of SYNAOS: “We are very happy to add STILL, another strong brand, to our international partner network. Our Intralogistics Management Platform SYNA.OS LOGISTICS has supported the VDA 5050 interface from the very beginning. Today, we manage numerous customer implementations on this basis. Through the partnership, our customers will benefit several times over, because they can individually select their hardware and software for the realisation of their intralogistics processes and significantly increase their efficiency. We look forward to joint projects with STILL.”

Florian Kratzer: “The standardised VDA 5050 communication interface will make processes even more secure and simple. As a responsible manufacturer, we will therefore continue to actively take part in this process – also in the interest of our customers – and actively support it.”

 

In order to participate in various research projects, develop innovative products and implement a smart factory, the intralogistics provider STILL has now set up its own 5G network at its Hamburg headquarters.

Already today, we see largely autonomous transport vehicles in production halls and warehouses. However, their capabilities still remain inferior to those of humans, as many processes still need to be learned and are not intelligent in every respect. Therefore, many suppliers are striving to fill this gap and make vehicles even more intelligent.

This broader vision of autonomously driving transport vehicles, however, can only be realised with very powerful mobile networks in order to move large amounts of data safely, promptly and efficiently. For this reason, STILL, which has always been very intensively involved in the development of innovative logistics and production solutions, has now installed its own 5G-SA campus network at its corporate headquarters in Hamburg.

“This 5G network, with which we are once again underlining our innovativeness, as 5G is not yet widespread in industry today, will on the one hand help us to take autonomously running logistics processes to a new level for our customers,” says Ansgar Bergmann, STILL expert for data and networking, describing the most important reasons for installing the company’s own 5G network.

“To this end, we have already been participating in numerous international research projects for many years that explore the idea of Industry 4.0. On the other hand, we will optimise our production with super-fast data transmission technology. In future, wireless production robots and people will be able to work together smoothly there in the sense of the ‘smart factory’ thanks to fast wireless communication.”

Innumerable technological approaches

Particularly interesting, according to Bergmann, are the performance and reliability aspects of 5G, as it is a licensed frequency spectrum for the user. “These are interesting, for example, in indoor logistics when integrating driverless transport systems. The operator is thus better supported than was previously possible with WLAN. Entire AGV fleets can be coordinated in real time and the control and route data can be managed in an edge cloud of the company,” says the expert.

Further possible applications include robotics, collaboration between humans and machines, and imaging processes for environment recognition.

Numerous new scenarios

Industry 4.0 approaches are also noticeably boosted by 5G technology. This optimises the step from classic to fully automated systems because Industry 4.0 is primarily based on data technology processes, and it is precisely these that are supported by 5G. All systems and products in the field of automation, process transparency, pay per use, predictive maintenance or consulting will be further advanced by 5G.

New visions, especially those based on machine learning, for which this data transfer boost is targeted, will soon be implemented by STILL in real existing technology. To this end, the company is involved in numerous international research projects, such as the ARIBIC project. The aim is to make better use of the data that automated guided vehicles (AGVs) collect via their sensors and cameras during their journeys through the warehouse. For example, digital twins of the environment are created that process relevant information in real time.

“These processes generate enormous amounts of data that must be transmitted at a very high speed. Without our new 5G data network, some approaches are not even possible. The previous technologies are usually quite susceptible to interference, which makes our work more difficult,” says Bergmann.

New CampusOS flagship project

Only a few weeks ago, at the beginning of 2022, the CampusOS lighthouse project was launched, which will be funded by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology with €18.1m over the next three years. Its goal is to build a modular ecosystem for open 5G campus networks based on open radio technologies and interoperable network components. It is intended to help strengthen the digital sovereignty of German companies.

To this end, various scenarios of regular operation at industrial project partners are being evaluated. STILL is, of course, one of the participants. The technology company is testing and evaluating the low-latency and resilient control of vehicles and the transmission of videos at very high data rates.

Bergmann: “This will be the first time our new 5G network is put to the test and will be benchmarked against other solutions. I am quite sure, however, that our system will pass this test with flying colours. Through these activities, STILL will also expand its expertise to advise its customers in this field of technology.”

 

SLAMcore, a leader in spatial intelligence software for robots and other autonomous machines, has formed a strategic partnership with SYNAOS, a specialist in smart intralogistics software solutions for logistics and factories. Together the two companies are announcing SYNA.OS VIEW, a low-cost, real-time, spatial intelligence system for manually-guided intralogistics vehicles (e.g., forklifts and warehouse vehicles). SYNA.OS VIEW addresses the growing demand for real-time location and tracking in busy logistics environments.

Efficiency is key in manufacturing and logistics and understanding the real-time location and operation of all assets allows better planning and more efficient operations.  One significant challenge today is how manually-guided vehicles, such as forklifts, can be cost-effectively tracked and integrated with autonomous vehicles in logistics and manufacturing environments. Adding Visual SLAM to manually-controlled vehicles allows this to happen in dynamic real-world environments.

SYNA.OS VIEW is a single unit that can be added to existing forklifts, vehicles, and machines to provide accurate real-time locations.  The unit uses low-cost stereo cameras and an IMU sensor running on a small, embedded computer and can be simply retrofitted to most vehicles.

SLAMcore’s spatial intelligence software delivers robust and precise localisation ensuring the position of each vehicle is known at all times. Integrated via an SDK with SYNAOS’ onboard software, real-time location is constantly communicated with the SYNA.OS LOGISTICS control system through a standardised interface (VDA 5050).

Until now, the position of manually-guided vehicles like forklifts could only be determined if the vehicles were fitted with expensive UWB positioning or LiDAR systems, often costing up to €15,000. The cost of the SYNA.OS VIEW camera-based system is significantly lower, offers a wider range of potential applications, and can be easily installed on all kinds of vehicles.

“This collaboration shows the power and flexibility of our vision-based SLAM systems,” said Owen Nicholson, CEO of SLAMcore. “Developed to provide low-cost, high-performance spatial intelligence for robots and autonomous machines, our software delivers accurate, robust Visual SLAM location and mapping to entirely new markets. SYNAOS offers the perfect platform for this type of solution, with expertise in intralogistics and leading customers in manufacturing and logistics markets.”

“SLAMcore is one of the leading providers of localisation, mapping and perception software that converts sensor data into spatial intelligence in real time,” says Dr. Timo Bänziger, Technical Entrepreneur SYNAOS. “We are the first to apply this vision technology to track logistics vehicles and implement real industrial applications applying the benefits of cutting-edge computer vision to manufacturing and logistics.”