Redefining automation: smart robots are changing logistics

In the future, intelligent robots will increasingly be able to undertake tasks in logistics that are still performed by humans today—either entirely or partially, depending on where it is sensible. The current economic and societal challenges, particularly the resilience of supply chains and the labor shortage, are key motivations for the research activities at Fraunhofer IML. There is already a noticeable shortage of personnel in logistics, whether in warehouses, production, hospital logistics, or airport logistics. Simultaneously, the workforce in these areas is aging. Workers require relief from physically demanding tasks, which still exist in logistics. In this context, robots are becoming colleagues: tasks can be fully assigned to robots or executed collaboratively.

Today, automated guided vehicles and mobile transport robots are also indispensable for the digitalization of supply chains and for managing the internal material flow, the lifeblood of warehouses and production: in the infrastructure-light logistics of the future, flexible autonomous (robotic) systems are increasingly replacing rigid automation solutions. By integrating robots into the processes, the material flow becomes more efficient and can thus fulfill the requirements of modern supply chains. This also includes the growing variety of variants in production, which necessitates adaptive and flexible manufacturing processes.

With the new transport robots, there is a paradigm shift from wired industrial communication to wireless communication. The concepts of cyber-physical systems are enhancing the degree of decentralization, including the implementation of decentralized swarm systems. In this context, researchers are already characterizing the automation of production by flexible, intelligent robots as “Industry 5.0”.

Robot 5.0: Next generation vehicles

Fraunhofer IML is the leading research institute in the field of automated guided vehicles and autonomous mobile robots in logistics. In numerous publicly funded research projects, researchers investigate the latest and most advanced technologies and processes in robotics and develop their benefits for logistics. Interdisciplinary teams implement innovative ideas as prototypes with great enthusiasm for the desired outcome and a clear focus on the subsequent application. In recent years, the researchers have developed a new generation of automated guided vehicles, from the “LoadRunner®,” that set a global milestone in both parcel sorting and swarm robotics, to the “evoBOT®,” which already indicates the humanoid future of robotics. Research results such as these can be tailored for specific applications in projects with companies and integrated into operational workflows.

Two in-house developments by Fraunhofer IML impressively demonstrate the possibilities robots offer for automation in logistics today. Companies can make use of the researchers' expertise for their own projects.

Accelerated development with simulation-based AI

Thanks to artificial intelligence, not only are robots themselves becoming smarter, but the development of new robots is also making significant progress with AI. Using conventional methods, progressing from the initial idea to the prototype or market-ready product takes several years. AI-based simulation models, in contrast, enable the realistic evaluation of new designs, sensors, and algorithms within the simulation. This significantly accelerates development processes. The two mobile transport robots evoBOT® and O3dyn – developed by Fraunhofer IML as part of the large-scale research project Silicon Economy – have already been developed through an AI-based simulation. For the development of highly dynamic systems such as the two transport robots, the behavior of the simulated transport vehicles is compared to that of the real ones in a specialized, particularly suitable test environment – with the aid of high-performance motion capturing – and the simulation model is optimized. As the discrepancy between the model and reality narrows, the simulation transforms into a digital reality for the AI, and the robot becomes a CPS (cyber-physical system) twin of the simulation. The virtual representations of the real vehicles have since been released as open source.

“Research is currently making great strides in the sections of mobile robotics and artificial intelligence. The future of intralogistics transport tasks belongs to autonomous mobile robots.”

- Prof. Dr.-Ing. Alice Kirchheim, Director of Fraunhofer IML