The goal is a standard for industrial indoor positioning (IIL). Prof. Thorsten Schüppstuhl and Prof. Jochen Kreutzfeldt from the Technical University of Hamburg (TUHH) are planning a kind of ‘Google Maps’ for the factory floor. The IT system is designed to meet more complex requirements than existing geo-based applications.
The potential for collaboration between industry, especially competitors in a market segment, and academia is great, but there are challenges to overcome: One is collaboration with competitors. For this reason, clearly defined topics have been formulated. In addition, a non-disclosure agreement was used as a further basis for the collaboration. In collaborations with the scientific community, there is often a fear that scientists will reveal too much information in publications – this was also precisely regulated in the agreement.
‘I have been working with localisation for several years in the areas of quality assurance, production, assembly and handling. One focus is the programming of robots that independently inspect and repair aircraft fuselages,’ says Prof. Schüppstuhl, who initiated the project. ‘Before the robots can insert screws or repair cracks, the exact location in the factory where the process is to be carried out must be identified. This localisation takes place in areas of less than one millimetre, which is a major challenge.’
As there are currently only a few digital applications for the IIL, and none of them cover all the tasks and conditions, Schüppstuhl turned to IKS.
For Professor Kreutzfeldt, the project has the best prerequisites: Success in applied research today often requires collaboration with innovative industrial partners. Substantial progress is particularly possible when these partners – as in our collaboration – jointly integrate a high level of technical knowledge and technological expertise.
Not only the scientists, but also the entrepreneurs are convinced of the joint project: ‘For STILL GmbH, it is particularly important to contribute its experience in mobile robotics and warehouse automation to the creation of the reference architecture for indoor localisation (RAIL). We want to promote the spread of mobile robots in intralogistics and minimise the set-up effort for automated transport in the future and make it more flexible, says Timo Krüger-Basjmeleh, explaining his company’s motivation for participating. RAIL has deliberately been designed as open source software and therefore forms the basis for the development of new services – not only in the logistics sector.’
This is also confirmed by Martin von Werder from Jungheinrich AG. He points out that the creation of standards in this area is a fundamental prerequisite for the implementation of localisation technology in automated industrial trucks, particularly from a cost perspective.
Christoph Reinke from the sensor manufacturer Sick sees the potential to automate up to 25 per cent of all forklift trucks, i.e. 250,000 vehicles per year, within the next five to ten years. The collaboration will give him new insights into the requirements for his own systems. It also benefits from a better understanding of the other company’s systems and new solutions that can be implemented based on the current state of research.
For his competitor, Dr Werner Neddermeyer of Pepperl+Fuchs, the exchange with industrial and scientific partners forms the basis for the development of navigation sensors for short-range applications.
For Schüppstuhl, the potential of the technology transfer project lies not only in the applications that directly benefit from it, but also in the sum of many small contributions from services that were previously not economically viable: ‘When Google started enriching existing maps with satellite images, aerial photographs, 3D models, community information and more, it was not foreseeable which applications would be able to profitably access them today. With this project, we hope to lay the groundwork for the future unleashing of such creativity in the industrial indoor sector.’
Industrial IIL systems offer a wide range of new and different applications: Processes are changing from traditional production to individualised systems that work autonomously and digitally. In the age of Industry 4.0, companies are therefore faced with the challenge of coordinating all workers, such as forklifts and tractors, as well as all workpieces and tools. Localisation is the basis for precise coordination and all developed functionalities, such as autonomous driving or communication between machines via software.