News

w3logistics researches on »Smart Tracking«

19.01.2022

w3logistics not only works on high-quality customer solutions in IT and logistics topics, but also regularly participates in research projects in order to further develop itself technologically.

Together with the company fastplan GmbH and the University of Duisburg-Essen, we are jointly exploring the topic of »SmartTracking in uncooperative industrial environments for innovative search and find« in a cooperation project. The project runs until the end of 2023 within the framework of the funding guideline »Central Innovation Programme for SMEs« (ZIM).

Relevance

Together with our project partners, we recognised that Industry 4.0 has not yet effectively integrated itself into the German medium-sized metal industry (MMI). The reason for this is primarily the severe uncooperative working environments in the warehouse, such as dirt, heat, distances and damping behaviour, which interfere with the automated searching and finding of goods. This is often an obstacle for those companies that have chaotic warehousing and want to be agile in the warehouse. Accordingly, we agreed with the cooperation partners to find a solution there.

Goal

The aim of the research project is the development and prototypical testing of a new technical system for the precise location of load carriers in uncooperative working environments of the MMI. As a sub-project, w3logistics is responsible for the conception and development of the software system for data aggregation and the processing and visualisation of the load carrier position.

Approach

A combination of LoRa radio technology (Long Range Wide Area) and Bluetooth device identification is planned as the foundation of »SmartTracking«. This will be paired with innovative algorithms for evaluating the radio signals and assessment patterns in the storage areas. With a targeted location accuracy of 50 cm and the possibility of integration into fully automated production systems, the envisaged solution offers real added value for users, especially in the aspect of cost efficiency due to the time savings in the processes.

Conclusion

We are looking forward to this exciting research project and are confident that this venture, like the research collaborations already carried out in the past, will bring enormous application potential for our company, and that we will be able to further complement our w3/max WMS suite as a result.