BMW Landshut factory in Bavaria, Germany, independent, connected and intelligent -- As part of the two-year, 1.2 million euro "robot in the cloud" research project funded by the Ministry of Economy of Bavaria, Germany, BMW Group is cooperating with the Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany, and with the support of several partner companies, Explore how to use autonomous logistics vehicles in the production environment of its parts factory in Landshut, Bavaria. The uniqueness of this aspect is that the complex calculation required for the operation of autonomous logistics is not carried out in the vehicle itself, but in the data cloud specially established for this purpose.
The research project was launched in 2021 under the initiative of BMW Group's technology and logistics development team. After preliminary theoretical work and preliminary tests under laboratory conditions in the TUM campus of Garching, they are now conducting field tests in the Landshut factory of BMW Group. Dr. Stefan Kasperowski, the plant manager, explained: "Through this pilot project, BMW Group Landshut is setting a new benchmark for intelligent connected factories. The increasing digitalization of production also includes logistics. The goal behind this project is to achieve fully connected production. In this process, there is seamless communication between autonomous transportation systems, logistics robots and mobile devices, as well as with control systems."
Ludwig Huber, who is responsible for integration in the Landshut factory, explained: "Specifically," robots in the cloud " The research project uses autonomous forklift trucks to load and unload trucks, and manages the block storage facilities in the supply center of BMW Group's Landshut factory. The camera integrated on the forklift is used as the basis for computing autonomous operation. They simultaneously calculate driving movements and determine coordinates with millimeter accuracy. These calculations are outsourced to high-performance data cloud using 5G technology. This means that complex processors and corresponding hardware no longer need to be installed in the vehicle itself. The cloud's optimal control of forklifts reduces the downtime of logistics vehicles and improves the performance and efficiency of the entire logistics system. “
5G wireless technology plays a key role in the use of cloud based logistics solutions in the supply center of Landshut factory. The new mobile telecommunication standard allows the transmission of large amounts of data in a very short time. 5G realizes the real-time connection between machines and equipment. "5G, the fifth generation mobile communication, is not only an incremental improvement of the existing standard. In addition to significantly improving the data transmission rate, it can also enable billions of machines to connect and transmit data in a near real-time manner." Hubert Aiwanger, Minister of Economy of Bavaria, said: "The 'Robot in the Cloud' project provides an impressive demonstration of possible 5G applications in the context of Industry 4.0."
The research alliance is composed of three other Bavarian companies and representatives of BMW Group: Congiv GmbH (providing communication services) in Munich installs 5G networks and provides cloud solutions in the Landshut factory of BMW Group. KS Control GmbH from Mintraching outside Regensburg provides self driving forklift. The scientific monitoring of the project is provided by the Technical University of Munich.
