STILL wants to bring driverless transport systems to the general public

Automated guided vehicles (AGVs) have become an indispensable part of the modern logistics world. “Automation is increasingly finding its way into our warehouses and production halls – in all sectors and in all processes,” says Florian Kratzer, International Key Account Manager Automated Solutions. Automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) score points above all for their individuality and speed with which they automatically transport materials. But to make them suitable for the mass market, a uniform interface is needed – such as the VDA 5050.

Only through a uniform interface can vehicles be controlled and coordinated across manufacturers. “At STILL, we believe that a standardised interface will be essential in the future in order to continue to serve the needs of our customers,” adds Florian Kratzer.

The solution is provided by the standardised VDA 5050 communication interface, which can be used, for example, to standardise order management or the traffic management of heterogeneous fleets under one user interface. The interface has demonstrated its capabilities during the AGV Mesh-Up events under the auspices of the VDMA Materials Handling and Intralogistics Association, among others. STILL had already participated in this event last year, which took place as part of the IFOY Test Camp. Together with various manufacturers, STILL demonstrated how a wide range of driverless transport vehicles can communicate with each other via the VDA 5050 interface, navigate safely and efficiently in a common area and complete transport tasks in a network. “Last year, within this test event, we very successfully formed vehicles from different manufacturers with very different navigation technologies and transport capabilities into a homogeneous unit under the control system of the KION Group, to which STILL also belongs,” says the STILL expert.

AGVs leave the niche

The success of such demonstrations shows that driverless transport systems will no longer be a niche solution in the future, but suitable for the mass market. Kratzer: “STILL has the vision of bringing automated solutions to the general public. In this way, we will also be able to cater for long-term, high-volume customer enquiries that require large, automated fleets.”

By adapting the group’s internal control system software for AGVs as well as the vehicle-integrated software to the VDA-5050 interface, the Hamburg-based intralogistics provider also wants to secure the expertise to be able to integrate other suppliers’ products into its system. At the same time, STILL can thus offer series-produced AGVs that can be integrated into the control systems of other suppliers via the VDA 5050, for example into those of the software manufacturer SYNAOS.

Partnership with SYNAOS

The fact that VDA 5050 is not only used for events and demonstration purposes is shown by the partnership that STILL has entered into with the innovative software manufacturer SYNAOS. This cooperation not only serves to implement and roll out state-of-the-art automation projects in practice, but above all to offer customers the opportunity to choose both the software and the hardware themselves and to bring the two together individually – exactly what the VDA 5050 promises.

Dr. Wolfgang Hackenberg, CEO & Co-Founder of SYNAOS: “We are delighted to add another strong brand to our international partner network with STILL. Our Intralogistics Management Platform SYNA.OS LOGISTICS has supported the VDA-5050 interface from the very beginning. Today we control numerous customer implementations on this basis. Through the partnership, our customers benefit several times over, because they individually select their hardware and software for the realisation of their intralogistics processes and significantly increase their efficiency. We look forward to joint projects with STILL.”

Florian Kratzer: “With the standardised VDA-5050 communication interface, processes will once again run much more securely and simply. As a responsible manufacturer, we will therefore continue to actively support this process in the interests of our customers.

For more information, please visit: https://www.still.de/en-DE.html