André Heinke and Dr.-Ing. Florian Podszus have contributed technical articles to the newly published Handbook Industry 4.0 published by Springer Verlag . The textbook deals with Industry 4.0 in the areas of production, automation and logistics. Consequently, we are pleased to be able to give the reader a deeper insight into Industry 4.0.
Small-scale, cyber-physical conveyor technology
With this article in the Industry 4.0 Handbook, we present small-scale, cyber-physical conveyor technology using the example of a conveyor matrix. This conveyor matrix is modularly composed of individual conveyor modules that are smaller than the packages to be transported. As a result, the conveyor matrix is able to perform various intralogistics functions such as transport, rotation, buffering and sequencing of packages. Parallel to the route of the physical package, a digital twin – a so-called data shadow – is moved: This means that all data describing the transport process is available at any time in the transport. The control of the conveyor matrix is decentralised and distributed, as each individual conveyor module has its own control system. We describe both the hardware structure of the conveyor modules and the necessary control algorithms to move physical packets and data shadows through the conveyor matrix.
Intelligent industrial trucks through the implementation of cognitive systems
This article in the Industry 4.0 handbook shows how the ability to be flexible and adapt to changing environmental conditions, which is reflected in people’s cognitive characteristics, can be transferred to industrial trucks in intralogistics. As examples of the implementation of Industry 4.0 in intralogistics, technologies will be presented that enable industrial trucks to recognize their environment, communicate information, reason, act autonomously, make decisions, learn or plan. Firstly, these capabilities are realised by means of an optical positioning system for determining the position of the industrial trucks. Second, camera-based storage/retrieval support is integrated into the forks. Thirdly, sensors integrated into tires and fourthly, through novel forms of interaction for industrial trucks in the form of speech and gestures.
Editors of the Handbook Industry 4.0: Michael ten Hompel, Birgit Vogel-Heuser, Thomas Bauernhansl