Autonomous logistics technologies, from warehouse automation to augmented reality and self-driving vehicles, are revolutionising the way manufacturers move goods from place to place, increasing efficiency, improving safety standards and reducing environmental footprints. Industry Europe looks at just some of the biggest trends of recent years.
Automated logistics:
A new reality T
he market for autonomous logistics systems is growing rapidly. According to the ‘Logistics Automation Market by Component’ report by Research and Markets, the global logistics automation market is expected to grow from USD 46.22 billion to USD 80.64 billion by 2023. This anticipated boom can be explained by numerous factors: the continued growth of the e-commerce industry, robotics advancements and the emergence of IoT, amongst others. The growing sophistication of driverless vehicles and drones is also playing a vital role in automating logistics processes.
Warehouse automation In warehousing facilities throughout Europe, humans and robots are working increasingly 14 Industry Europe
closely together. One high-profile example of this is at online retail giant Amazon’s Winsen centre in Hamburg, where robots are being use to help with stock-picking. As yet, this technology is by no means the norm as the majority of facilities across Europe are still manually operated. But as demand for staff rises thanks to the growing popularity of e-commerce, many European countries are facing labour shortages; according to research from Oxford Economics, working age populations are expected to fall in countries such as Germany, Poland and Spain up to 2031. Increased warehouse automation could be a viable solution to this. And this is also where collaborative robots (‘cobots’) come in. Increasingly, they are working alongside humans on repetitive
tasks – such as unpacking and inspection – to keep warehouses running more smoothly and eliminate errors. For example, automation technology specialist Swisslog’s AutoPiQ solution has robots picking items with humans finishing off the job. German logistics company DHL’s Sawyer robot, meanwhile, has articulated arms and suction grabbers to help pack products.
Augmented reality Emerging computer vision and machine learning technologies are helping warehouse employees to identify where a product is located at a faster pace than could otherwise be achieved. Augmented reality applications could streamline the time it takes to identify packages. A mobile app
