The announcement by Mauro Lunardelli, head of "Logistics Solutions" at SSI Schäfer, could have been symbolic of LogiMAT 2025, which has long since reached the scale of the Hannover Messe. However, the significance of the tradeStuttgart-basedfair for global material flow and logistics systems is far greater.
The LogiMAT trade fair, bursting at the seams, has been highlighting the increasingly important role of logistics in providing essential services, a role that has surpassed that of the banking sector for some time now, and not just since the COVID-19 crisis, which served as a stress test. Alice Kirchheim, recently appointed head of the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics (IML), also made a valuable point, emphasizing that Europe must increasingly prepare to break the existing US dominance in the IT sector through its own open-source projects, which cannot simply be shut down at will by impulsive autocrats.
A. Kirchheim: Breaking US dominance in IT
Even humanoid robots like the EvoBot, developed during the tenure of former IML head Michael ten Hompel, have recently become more competitive again thanks to modern AI and accelerated computing and stability software, including innovative gripping systems, because their practical application has been simplified by self-learning artificial intelligence (AI). The IML itself presented a digitally controlled miniature shipyard inStuttgart.
It seemed almost superfluous – but perhaps a little too hastily sidelined at a press conference – to simply recite the usual increases, figures, and facts. Especially since participants and visitors were clearly groaning on the 68,197 square meters of net exhibition space occupied by the 1,623 exhibitors, given the public transport strikes and the resulting limited options for reaching the trade fair other than by car.
At times, there was a complete standstill in and around the airport. Parking lots were completely closed, and valuable hours were wasted on the mere 800-meter-long paths between the parking garage, the main entrance (east), and the west entrance, along with appointments that could not be kept or could only be kept with considerable delay.
There is currently even more movement in technical terms in logistics and all supply chain processes with regard to rapidly advancing automation processes, robotization and digitization, including the recent hype of transport and material flow processes driven by artificial intelligence and its opportunities.
Strong Swiss presence
The usual "Best Product" award in the category of picking, conveying, lifting, and storage technology to an "AeroBot" from the Austrian intralogistics provider Knapp. This new generation of storage robots uses lidar orientation to navigate under the racking system and vertically along the shelves, enabling them to move in three dimensions to their designated storage location. There, a small satellite robot mounted directly on the AeroBot handles the storage and retrieval of the system containers, known as Aeroboxes, which can be stored up to four deep and weigh up to 35 kg. This compact storage system allows for installation heights of up to 12 meters.
In the category of identification, packaging and loading technology, and load securing, a fourth generation of RFID readers from manufacturer Kathrein won the "Best Product" award. The new generation of readers—almost like a satellite-based ground station from the Cold War era—comes in two device variants: an ARU (Antenna Reader Unit with integrated antenna and three outputs for external antennas) and an RRU (Reader Unit with four outputs for external antennas).
ARU Gen4 from Kathrein
The integrated antenna in the ARU Gen4 is a circularly polarized phased-array antenna system with three scalable antenna beams. Two of these beams are wide and oriented to the left and right, while the third beam is narrow and oriented straight ahead. Positioned on a forklift, this device detects virtually no transponder, even those attached anywhere on a pallet. Real-time inventories can therefore be performed even while the entire system is still in motion.
In the Software, Communication, and IT , PSIwms AI from the provider PSI was awarded a prize. This AI solution analyzes thousands of warehouse operating scenarios every hour and continuously provides optimization recommendations. It is based on a digital twin of the real warehouse, which generates data used to train machine learning models (algorithms). This virtual test warehouse is connected to the WMS and represents the real warehouse by mirroring all relevant processes and characteristics.
«PSIwms AI» by PSI
In a reference project, the platform analyzed the relevant processes of a distribution center with 750,000 storage locations and more than 700 employees. As a result, the processes were optimized to such an extent that picking routes were shortened by approximately 31 percent and the efficiency of the entire picking process was increased by approximately 23 percent. The AI platform is directly connected to the warehouse management system PSIwms via an interface. The AI platform was demonstrated in Stuttgart using a showcase.
(More reports to follow)
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