Researchers are working on a forklift that should be able to autonomously pack, palletise and transport goods in warehouses. The robots must be able to work safely with humans present in the same environment. They should also become self-learning, allowing them to adapt to a changing environment.
This is the Intra-Logistics with Integrated Automatic Deployment (ILIAD) project, which has received a €7 million grant from the European Union's (EU) Horizon 2020 programme. The project is being carried out by a consortium consisting of both universities and companies. The UK University of Lincoln, Italian University of Pisa, German Leibniz University, Bosch, Kollmorgen Automation, ACT Operations Research, Logistic Engineering Services and Orkla Foods are involved in the project. The project is led by Sweden's Örebro University.
Flexible system for intralogistics
The project focuses on intralogistics, a form of logistics that takes place on a company's own premises. Intralogistics services must be able to respond quickly to changing market needs, unforeseen trends and the ever-shortening life cycles of products. This places new demands on intralogistics systems, which must be more flexible, reliable and quicker to deploy.
Automated systems for warehouses have been available for some time. Amazon, for instance, has more than 45,000 automated robots in use in more than 20 fulfilment centres around the world. These robots were developed by the company Kiva Systems, which was acquired by Amazon in 2012. The fulfilment centres contain elevated cabinets in which products are stored. The robots can position themselves under these cabinets, lift the entire cabinet and transport it to a human employee. Workers then pick the right products from the cabinet and pack them. The consortium behind ILIAD points out that many such existing systems, however, require special infrastructure. In Amazon's case, for example, these are the special cabinets that can be lifted by robots.
No dedicated infrastructure
With ILIAD, the consortium is capitalising on this. ILIAD aims to develop a smart forklift that can operate autonomously in warehouses and warehouses, without the need for special infrastructure or warehouse modifications. The robots must be able to work safely with humans and will be equipped with both vision technology and artificial intelligence for this purpose. This combination will enable the robots to detect the presence of humans and predict their movements, allowing the robots to autonomously plan a safe route. The robots will use visual signals to communicate their intentions to humans, preventing people from being surprised by movements or actions of the forklifts.
Thanks to the use of artificial intelligence, the robots should also be able to adapt to a changing environment. The robots continuously optimise themselves based on information gathered from the vision systems. In practice, this means, among other things, that the arrangement of racks, for example, can be changed without having to manually reprogram the forklifts. The smart operation of the forklifts should also make it possible to remove or add individual robots from the warehouse at any time, without requiring manual adjustments to the configuration of the robots.
Objectives
The consortium behind ILIAD sets itself the goal of:
- develop a fleet of heterogeneous robots that can work independently in a warehouse;
- develop robots that optimise themselves autonomously throughout their lifetime;
- enable the manipulation of a fleet of robots via mobile devices;
- make the forklifts work efficiently and safely with humans who are in the same space;
- enable efficient fleet management with formal safeguards.
The project started in January 2017 and will run for 48 months.
Author: Wouter Hoeffnagel
Source: University of Lincoln
Source: ILIAD
Photo by: Chris Vaughan Photography / University of Lincoln
