Published on: March 17, 2025 / update from: March 17, 2025 - Author: Konrad Wolfenstein
AI-controlled industrial trucks and their digital twin-a milestone in warehouse automation-Image: Xpert.digital
Digital twins and AI: How Kion transformed the supply chains
Kion Group presents impressive physical AI solution on LogiMat 2025
The presentation of the physical AMNIVERSE solution by the Kion Group in cooperation with Nvidia and Accenture marks significant progress in industrial automation. On the LogiMat 2025 in Stuttgart, it was impressively demonstrated how AI-controlled industrial trucks in connection with digital twins can revolutionize efficiency, adaptability and cost effectiveness in supply chains. The fully integrated goods input solution with autonomous mobile robots and manual forklifts, both equipped with AI, shows the enormous potential of this technology for the future of intralogistics.
The strategic cooperation between Kion, Nvidia and Accenture
Kion presents a solution with physical AI on the logiMat in Stuttgart - Image: Kion Group
The solution presented on the logiMat is the first result of the large -scale cooperation between Kion, Nvidia and Accenture for redesigning industrial automation announced in January 2025. This partnership combines the expertise of three leading companies in their respective areas: Kion as a provider of industrial trucks and supply chain solutions, NVIDIA as the market leader in the field of artificial intelligence and accenture as an expert in digital transformation.
Rob Smith, CEO of Kion Group AG, emphasized that working with Nvidia and Accenture was of great strategic importance. The warehouse automation is redesigned by Nvidia's leading position in the field of artificial intelligence and acccoures in digital technologies. The combination of these strong partners enables a vision for future camps that worked as part of an intelligent, agile system, continuously developed with their surroundings and could cope with almost any challenge in the supply chain.
The three companies use physical AI with intelligent inpatient cameras, autonomous forklifts and the most modern automation and robotic solutions to create highly realistic real-time digital twins in Nvidia's omnive verses, which are fed by live sensor and camera data.
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The physical AI solution: integration of real and virtual world
On the logiMat, the Kion-Daughter Linde Material Handling presented a fully integrated goods input solution with an autonomous mobile robot (AMR) and a manual forklift, both of which are equipped with AI. This solution demonstrates the practical use of the so-called “physical AI”-AI models that embody the principles and properties of the physical world.
The solution presented is presented digitally in Nvidia's omnive verses and shows the real-time localization of industrial trucks. The on-board and inpatient cameras run on Nvidia hardware and record and process live operating data. It is particularly noteworthy that the entire solution works in a constantly developing simulation environment that is designed to optimize vehicle coordination and route planning on a large scale.
In addition, the vehicles have apps that offer continuous software upgrades for functions such as improved person recognition and avoidance. This underlines the dynamic and adaptable character of the solution, which can continuously improve and adapt to new requirements.
Digital twins: The heart of the new technology
A central element of the solution presented is the concept of the digital twin - a virtual replica of a physical warehouse that replicates its properties and behavior. This technology offers an efficient method for planning, validating and optimizing warehouse automation and ensures smooth implementation and long -term reliability.
The process begins with the digital replica of the Warehouse Control System (toilet), which is used as a test environment to evaluate the system throughput, the messaging functions of the Warehouse Management System (WMS) and the system behavior long before installation. According to Ron Winkler, Managing Director of Digital Business Unit at Linde MH, the configuration of a digital warehouse twin enables the simulation and efficiency test of any conceivable infrastructure and fleet configuration in 3D. The AI can be continuously trained and improved, creating a warehouse ecosystem, the challenges proactively mastered and continuously develops.
The digital representation in Nvidia's omnive verses enables an infinite number of scenarios to define the ideal layout of a warehouse. This helps customers to define ideal layouts for new camps and improve warehouse management by predicting top loads, ensuring workers' security and resources can be planned more effectively.
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The technical implementation: intelligent cameras and real-time localization
An essential part of the solution presented is the real-time localization of industrial trucks. Linde Material Handling is currently developing a real-time localization system that works both inside and outside the warehouse. It enables the seamless persecution of the location of each vehicle through innovative, low-infrastructure Ultra-wide band technology.
Intelligent camera systems that are strategically installed in the entire storage frastructure and on manual and automated vehicles are used to track load carriers, AMRS and manual vehicles. They also offer real-time monitoring of loading and storage areas. The images recorded by these systems are then interpreted and processed directly by the AI.
This is practically demonstrated in the showcase at the Linde exhibition stand: a forklift driver was transported with an electric linden forklift to the reception area. In the planned transfer area, a fully automatic linden pallet truck then takes over the palette for further transport to the warehouse. The intelligent camera of the manual forklift automatically absorbs a picture of the load and stores it in the system. At the same time, the camera captures the entire environment, identifies people and obstacles and immediately adapts the behavior of the vehicle to the situation.
Advantages for customers: efficiency, cost savings and adaptability
The physical AI solution of the Kion Group offers numerous advantages for your customers. In global commercial, delivery and logistics centers, the conditions change constantly, and accordingly designed, simulates and optimizes the real options in the supply chains of its customers with the help of physical AI. Digital twins play an important role here: they work in real time, act as a control tower and at the same time as a template for the physical systems. This enables enormous savings in time, investment and operating costs and allows customers to flexibly adapt their processes to changes in the supply chains.
Operators in particular benefit from this development. The combination of intelligent hardware and software with high computing power creates maximum transparency across all warehouse processes, while continuous simulations make order processing more efficient and reliable. Progresses such as machine learning and neural networks also increase warehouse efficiency, increase throughput and enable optimization of both manual and automated fleets. The staff can be used more efficiently, which ultimately brings considerable cost savings to the company.
The future of warehouse automation: continuous innovation
The solution presented is only the beginning of continuous development in the area of warehouse automation by AI. With the increasing complexity of the warehouse operations, the optimization of routes and the coordination of manual and automated industrial trucks places significantly higher requirements for computing power.
If the coordination of 100 or more vehicles is necessary, the use of advanced intelligence and powerful hardware is indispensable in order to efficiently process the extensive amount of data. This is exactly where the AI of the Nvidia Omniverse-platform is used. It creates a digital twin of the warehouse, which represents an exact virtual replica of the physical environment. In this digital image, simulations can be carried out within seconds, be it to optimize routes and the coordination between autonomous mobile robots (AMRS) and manual forklifts or to improve existing warehouse routes.
As a technology and innovation leader in the industry, Linde Material Handling is a leader in developing AI-based solutions. These solutions represent a significant breakthrough that aims to improve customers' competitiveness and to ensure the long -term efficiency of their material flows.
A further development in supply chain optimization
The physical AI solution of the Kion Group presented at LogiMat 2025 in cooperation with Nvidia and Accenture marks a turning point in warehouse automation and supply chain optimization. Due to the seamless integration of AI-controlled industrial trucks and digital twins, warehouses are made more efficient, more adaptable and cost-effectively.
The combination of physical AI, real-time localization and digital twins enables customers to continuously optimize their warehouse processes and to quickly adapt to changed conditions. This not only leads to considerable cost and time savings, but also improves the safety and reliability of the warehouse operations.
With this groundbreaking technology, the Kion Group underlines its position as an innovation leader in intralogistics and paves the way for a new era of warehouse automation. Cooperation with Nvidia and Accenture shows how cross -industry partnerships can lead to disruptive solutions that transform entire branches of industry.
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Konrad Wolfenstein
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