Industry 4.0 – Transport logistics is changing

 

Industry 4.0 – a term that has recently become a buzzword, generating much discussion in industry and politics. In its truest sense, Industry 4.0 refers to a future-oriented project of the German Federal Government, which envisions the close integration of IT and manufacturing technology to make the country fit for future challenges.

According to the strategy paper, the fourth industrial revolution, driven by the rapid development of the internet, will lead to a merging of the real and virtual worlds, ultimately resulting in the Internet of Things (IoT). Here, the products or components themselves network with other items, users, or means of transport and communicate with each other to generate seamless and even more efficient processes.

A sign of the shift towards Industry 4.0 is the increasing importance of networking IT systems embedded in production and logistics processes, both with each other and with the internet in general (so-called cyber-physical systems, CPS). The ever-increasing and accelerating development of automation and integration in industry is accompanied by the creation of increasingly intelligent monitoring and control technologies, enabling companies to manage and optimize their entire value creation networks in near real-time. This development will ultimately lead to the implementation of fully autonomous decision-making processes in production and transportation.

One step towards this goal is the self-learning, intelligent factory ( Smart Factory ). The focus here is on developing intelligent, self-regulating production systems and processes, as well as implementing networked production facilities that communicate with each other independently.

Smart Logistics: Logistics of the Future

smart technologies are also increasingly finding their way into transport logistics

But what exactly are smart technologies?

These are computer-aided systems that fully automatically control entire work processes and are able to operate autonomously, thus controlling an entire process independently.

Today's logistics have little in common with the relatively one-dimensional warehousing and shipping of goods from just a few years ago. This is due to new web technologies that allow for a completely new level of interactivity between participants. And this development continues to progress rapidly. Partially or even fully automated transport systems are already being tested in numerous applications.

Smart Factory – the intelligent factory of the future

The German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), in collaboration with various manufacturers, has developed a first prototype of an intelligent factory of the future – the so-called Smart Factory . Its main feature is its composition of independent production modules that communicate autonomously with each other using a multitude of information systems. Human labor plays only an assisting role in the production process.

Three key building blocks form the basis of the development:

• the intelligent, communicating product
• the networked system
• the system's assisting operator

The intelligent product, with the help of integrated sensors (e.g., RFID or Bluetooth), is constantly informed about its current order, material, and production data, thus influencing its own manufacturing process. The networked system communicates with the individual intelligent products via CPS components and monitors each work step. In this system, the human operator assisting the user is informed directly by the product about the details of the assembly process, including the necessary work steps.

Smart Factory and Data Logistics

In the smart factory, the traditional separation of production planning and production control is eliminated. Instead, an integrated approach is used, in which machines exchange information and forecasts about the production process and coordinate subsequent work steps. Data on material flow, machine and storage system utilization, and resource consumption are also integrated into the process and considered in action planning. For this information flow to continuously impact ongoing production, it must occur in real time between devices.

This is where data logistics plays a particularly important role, as it must ensure that all data, both current and forecasted, are available quickly and comprehensively and are forwarded without any loss of time.

This modern type of production by no means ends at the gates of the smart factory. The integrated, order-oriented approach to manufacturing, which encompasses the entire value chain from raw materials to the finished industrial product, requires cross-company thinking and, from a data logistics perspective, the assurance of a smooth exchange of information.

The challenges involved are enormous. On the one hand, a massive data flow is expected, necessitating a comprehensive reorganization of the IT infrastructure. A rapid expansion of the network infrastructure is therefore essential for the project's success.

In addition to the qualitative and quantitative expansion of data lines, data logistics faces another highly complex and currently much-discussed challenge: ensuring comprehensive data security. Besides guaranteeing the availability of data for authorized users, maintaining its confidentiality plays a central role. Unauthorized access, as well as the loss or unauthorized disclosure of confidential data, must be prevented at all costs. Data logistics professionals are therefore faced with the task of advancing the development and operation of comprehensive security concepts and standards.

The connection between data and transport logistics

In addition to data logistics, transport logistics will play an even more important role in the context of Industry 4.0. This specifically involves the complete networking of all objects involved in the transport chain. In many areas, this is already a reality and is used daily in a multitude of applications: flexible route planning based on predicted traffic conditions or weather, and software-supported traffic flow management are just two examples. But technological development doesn't stop there. The introduction of intelligent, self-driving vehicles in a transport infrastructure based on the Internet of Things will open the door to entirely new dimensions of automated and flexible logistics solutions.

In this area, data and transport logistics go hand in hand, with the former providing the information needed to optimize transport logistics. The more comprehensive the exchange of current capacity, weather, traffic, and vehicle information, the more efficiently the growing logistics flows can be managed. In times of increasing production and the transport of ever smaller batch sizes (keyword: e-commerce), the manufacturing and distribution sides are virtually dependent on the performance and flexibility of transport logistics. Only if it can guarantee that raw materials, semi-finished products, or shippable items arrive on site on time can the vision of a fourth industrial revolution in general, and the concept of the smart factory in particular, be realized at all.

It is expected that smart technologies will prevail in production sooner or later. But how will this affect warehouse logistics? Will the development there proceed in the same or a similar way?

There are plenty of signs of this.

Smart transport systems in the warehouse

A major trend in future intralogistics is the introduction of "cellular transport systems" in warehouses. These are swarms of autonomously operating vehicles that use laser scanners, infrared sensors, and RFID chips to independently perceive their surroundings and move autonomously to their respective destinations.

Without a central control system, these vehicles negotiate incoming transport orders among themselves, establish right-of-way rules, and exchange data about their respective positions in the warehouse. Since each shuttle processes its information decentrally, the entire control system is distributed across many virtual units. If malfunctions occur, the swarm of vehicles reacts and resolves the problem itself.

Autonomous transport robots

This is where the two companies Kardex Remstar and Servus Intralogistics come in, having developed a new solution Smart Factory

The core components of the solution are dynamic retrieval systems from Kardex Remstar and a specialized transport system from Servus Intralogistics, consisting of autonomous, rail-mounted transport robots. Both companies' products have been available separately for some time. What's new is that the components are combined into an efficient overall solution using newly developed software. The parts required for assembly are stored in a space-saving manner in Kardex Remstar's vertical storage lifts, carousel racks, or container storage systems. At the time of retrieval, the Servus transport system automatically retrieves the parts from storage and transports them to the assembly workstations using autonomous transport robots. The robots automatically receive information about the required work steps and complete all subsequent steps independently. Consequently, the Servus system does not require a central control unit, as the transport robots communicate directly with other transport robots and workstations via infrared, allowing them to react to their immediate surroundings. Servus' transport system proves to be particularly flexible, as it allows for free route planning within the factory hall and adapts optimally to existing building structures. This means the track can be installed at any point – from floor to ceiling – in storage and production halls.

Swarm intelligence from the Fraunhofer Institute

A fundamentally comparable, but in its current form more advanced approach is shown by a container storage and transport system called Multishuttle Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics .

The basic idea is that the decisive benefit of a storage system is not only measured by its pure storage and retrieval capacity, but also by the speed at which the storage containers reach their destination. The specialists at Fraunhofer IML assume that the proportion of conveyor and storage systems for small load carriers will continue to increase in warehouse logistics compared to pallet conveyor and storage systems. This is due to the continuous reduction in shipment sizes and the resulting inventory-reducing measures in industry and trade.

The original idea involved developing a transport system with cost-effective, rail-guided vehicles. These vehicles were also intended to be capable of independently handling storage and retrieval operations within the warehouse, thus enabling the entire transport process from the warehouse to the workstation without any further handling. This idea led to the development of the so-called Multishuttle , which operates similarly to the Servus transport vehicle.

However, the engineers quickly recognized the limitations of this solution: the inflexible rail system. They then set about further developing the multishuttle, one that would navigate the warehouse without rails. In collaboration with Dematic, the institute developed the MultiShuttle Move , which is compatible with the conventional rail system but also equipped with a floor-mounted chassis and an intelligent navigation system. The vehicle is equipped with laser scanners at the front and rear, which serve both for pathfinding and as a safety feature when operating on the floor. Using integrated positioning technology, it can move completely freely within the space without any guide rails or other fixed markers and react dynamically to changes. This minimizes the need for fixed conveyor technology while simultaneously achieving maximum flexibility.

With this innovative system, intelligent and interconnected transport vehicles handle all transport operations, for example, from a high-bay warehouse to the workstations where they are further processed or picked. These agile helpers are not guided by warehouse management software, but coordinate themselves autonomously without any central control. Since this type of warehouse logistics requires a large number of these small helpers, software would be overwhelmed by the complexity of managing this swarm of robots. This allows them to move completely freely within the high-bay warehouse, both on rails and on the floor.

The devices communicate and control each other using the principle of swarm intelligence. This is achieved through the use of newly developed sensor technology equipped with functionalities such as radio tracking, distance measurement, and navigation. This allows the individual shuttles to always find the most direct and shortest route to their destination, coordinate with each other regarding order acceptance and optimal route planning, and thus ensure maximum throughput in the warehouse and therefore efficiency.

Collisions are also avoided by the integrated sensor system, which automatically stops the vehicles if a collision with another device or a person is imminent. Otherwise, fixed right-of-way rules apply in the warehouse, similar to road traffic.

If additional resources are needed, the system's transport capacity can be flexibly adjusted by increasing the number of vehicles. Investments in fixed facilities are not required.