Load and unload your trucks without the need for a human hand. Still has developed the AXL 15 iGo for this purpose. A milestone with a distinctly Belgian touch, because department store chain Colruyt is one of the first to use this technology in its warehouses.
“The holy grail of automation in intralogistics”, according to Still, was the autonomous loading and unloading of trucks. Due to the increasing use of autonomous warehouse vehicles and automated docking stations, robots may have taken over more and more tasks from human employees “inside” the warehouse, but goods receipt and shipping remained a difficult piece of the puzzle to solve.
Automation processes in the warehouse must rely on high predictability and standardization of the load. And that is precisely a challenge on a busy unloading quay, especially inside a trailer full of fast-moving consumer goods, edible and other. No two trailers look exactly the same, pallets are not always perfectly arranged and employees work close to each other. Traditional, stationary automation solutions for this space have been around for years, but many of them are based on fixed installations. At Colruyt they needed something different.
“For us, these technologies were innovative, but not necessarily adapted to our busy and variable supply chain environment,” explains Colruyt’s Supply Chain Director Koen De Vos. Classic solutions with conveyor belts and fixed charging infrastructure were not an option, because they could not be reconciled with Colruyt’s need for flexibility. Manual forklifts therefore remained the standard solution on the loading docks – reliable, but dependent on labor availability and subject to ergonomic and safety limitations. If you want to automate this process, you need a solution that can manage without fixed security technology.
Watch in 3D
Enter the Still AXL 15 iGo. To work safely, this newcomer to the Still iGo range uses two different technologies to ‘see’ in his workplace. Outside the trailer, the truck uses so-called 3D-Visual-SLAM technology: thanks to sensors, it reliably and early detects any movements of the truck during loading and unloading of the trailer. As soon as the AXL 15 iGo is active “inside” the trailer, the system automatically switches to LiDAR-based location determination. LiDAR safety scanners, camera systems and visual and acoustic warning signals keep the pallet truck away from people and obstacles, even in confined spaces. The integrated 3D pallet detection also enables safe handling, even of slightly shifted or not ideally placed pallets at predetermined locations. How detailed this 3D technology works was nicely demonstrated at the product launch during LogiMAT: the image generated on site from the Still stand even takes the lettering on the surrounding panels into account.
The AXL 15 iGo does not require an additional ‘Safety-at-the-Gate’ concept with stationary installations such as scanners or reflectors on the loading dock or in the trailer. Two trucks together can autonomously load up to 30 EPAL pallets into a trailer in about 35 minutes. You have to be a warehouse worker to match that pace.
Testing at Colruyt
The distribution centers of department store chain Colruyt Group were the setting for the proof of concept of this new technology. A challenging context: three warehouses of 100,000 m² each from which 700 locations must be supplied daily. Efficiency and the lowest possible costs are paramount. Koen De Vos, Supply Chain Director at Colruyt Group, explains: “This focus determines the design of the entire supply chain, from order picking strategies to outbound transport.”
At the same time, retail logistics remains very labor intensive. High throughput capacity, compact storage spaces and a large number of manual operations characterize daily activities. This makes recruitment and personnel planning increasingly challenging. “One of the most important challenges I see for the future is the availability of labor,” says De Vos. Automation is therefore not a replacement strategy, but a way to support employees, they emphasize at Colruyt.
Autonomous “colleagues”
It is therefore a good thing that the AXL 15iGo cannot only operate on the unloading quay. He not only removes the pallet from the truck, he also transports it autonomously – horizontally – into the warehouse. There, a reach truck can possibly take over to place the load in a rack. Still also offers a range of autonomous solutions in that sector.
Still markets this new pallet truck as a solution for sectors with high pallet turnover and standardized loads, such as 3PL service providers, logistics companies in the food and retail sectors and manufacturing companies. With a load capacity of up to 1,500 kg and a speed of up to 2 meters per second, the AXL 15 iGo is designed for industrial applications. And just as important: it has been designed with scalable fleet integration in mind, via the standard interface VDA 5050 and a Fleet Manager, but also via open interfaces (API) to warehouse management systems.
“The AXL 15 iGo is not a concept study, but a market-ready solution for autonomous loading and unloading of hard and soft wall trailers with clearly defined preconditions,” says Florian Heydenreych, Executive Vice President Sales & Service at Still. Immediately available to take over the work on the unloading quay from the employees in your warehouse, in short.
