Audi plant employees to have goods delivered on autonomous carriers

In a move that can be deemed futuristic, logistics employees at Audi will no longer have to fetch the required goods from the material shelves. Instead, the goods will come to them fully automatically on driverless transport systems (DTS). The new technology makes Audi the world’s first automobile manufacturer to implement such a DTS based goods to person concept. The company is currently testing the new method with the commissioning of driver’s manuals at the Audi plant in Ingolstadt.

Axel Bley, head of logistics concept development commented, “Autonomous goods conveyance is another pioneering development towards the factory of the future. By means of intelligent connectivity, we achieve additional efficiency and flexibility, while easing the work of our employees.”

The Audi employees describe the new warehouse as a ‘supermarket of the future,’ because the system knows at all times which parts the commissioners need and provides them with exactly the right goods at the right time.

The driverless transport systems, so‑called carries, bring the goods to the commissioners fully autonomously. To do so, they drive under the shelves, lift them up and transport them automatically to a central picking station. There, symbols on a monitor show the employees which goods they have to put into which place. Unlike the previous person‑to‑goods commissioning, a DTS does not need wide lanes and picking bays, so the shelves can be positioned much closer together, thus reducing space requirements by 25 percent.

A fleet-management system coordinates the carries so that they always arrive at the commissioners’ workplaces punctually. This means that the employees never have to wait for their goods – a shelf change at the picking station takes just four seconds. The robots receive the order to bring a shelf for commissioning by WiFi. When in motion, they orient themselves by means of QR codes on the floor, which are read by a camera installed under the DTS. The autonomous transport systems move in a separate area from where the employees work.

The goods‑to‑person principle eliminates not only long working times in the picking bays, but also long walking distances and the pushing of heavily loaded material carts. Another advantage of the supermarket of the future is its versatility: If components change or new ones are added, this can be quickly integrated.

“All the shelves are mobile, so where they are located is no longer important. With the increasing number of parts, it is enormously important that we can react flexibly,” added Bley.

The autonomous transport systems are equipped with eight rechargeable batteries with a running time of approximately seven hours. When their charge status has fallen to 40 percent, they automatically return to their charging stations. There, they are recharged for two hours via induction plates in the floor, and then automatically return to work in the transporting shelves. When charged, the robots accelerate to a speed of 3.6 kilometers per hour, irrespective of the weight of the material carried. They can transport a maximum of 600 kilograms.

The commissioning of the owner’s manuals for the Audi A3 models is the first task for which the new supermarket concept is being tested. Next year, additional commissioning stations at Audi will take over the goods‑to‑person principle. 

Also read: Tomorrow’s mobility begins with real-time digital maps