The winners of the IFOY AWARD 2022

Ismaning near Munich, June 30, 2022. The International Intralogistics and Forklift Truck of the Year (IFOY) AWARD recognises the year´s best intralogistics products and solutions. The decision is based on the three-stage audit, consisting of the IFOY test protocol comprising around 80 criteria, the scientific IFOY Innovation Check and the jury test. The decisive factor is that the nominees are not compared with each other, but with their competitor products on the market.

The sponsors of the IFOY AWARD are the VDMA Materials Handling and Intralogistics Sector Association and the VDMA Robotics + Automation Sector Association. IFOY partners are Messe Dortmund and the world´s leading forklift attachment manufacturer Cascade. The IFOY pallet partner is CHEP, the global market leader in pallet pooling. Logistics real estate partner is GARBE, logistics partner is LTG. Trailer partner is Fliegl Fahrzeugbau. Event partner is BMW Group. The headquarters of the IFOY organisation are in Ismaning near Munich. The IFOY AWARD is under the patronage of Dr. Robert Habeck, German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action.

IFOY Winner: Jungheinrich, ERD 220i
Special Vehicle of the Year 2022

The IFOY AWARD 2022 in the “Special Vehicle” category goes to Jungheinrich for its ERD 220i ride-on pallet truck. The international jury selected the truck as the best new release in this market segment.

Until recently, you had to make a choice when it came to ride-on pallet trucks: Either go for compact or go for safe or go in the ergonomic direction. With the new ERD 220i, Jungheinrich puts an end to the dilemma of compromise. Thanks to the integration of the lithium-ion batteries, the need for a separate battery box is eliminated. This results in a space gain of 300 millimetres, which is entirely due to the very compact dimensions, optimum operator protection and improved ergonomics.

The suspension of the standing platform can be easily adjusted to the operator´s body weight via six switches. The adjustable suspension works noticeably more comfortably. The working position is comfortable, and the operator feels much better protected than with a classic pallet truck with a folding platform. Comfort is also excellent, with the possibility to lean against the side wall on both sides. The handles provide a good grip and control in any position. Another innovation of the lift truck is the smartPILOT tiller steering. The electric steering is very intuitive and has a convenient automatic centre position for straight-line travel. The height is adjustable in four positions and the fork and lift mast are also easy to operate with one hand. The new charging interface connects the truck quickly and easily to an external fast charger (up to 300 A). An integrated charger (25 A) is available as an option, offering flexibility at any 230 V socket.

A pallet truck with double-deck function has made its debut in the IFOY test. So, there is no comparison material, but the ERD 220i moves all loads that are also used in regular pallet truck tests easily and smoothly. The IFOY test truck is an ERD 220i in the drivePLUS version, and in its most powerful mode (P3) it achieves 11.2 per cent higher productivity than the test average in its class for single handling – the second highest value ever. Test consumption at 100 pallets is 35 per cent below the market average. With the maximum battery capacity of 260 Ah, a practical operating time of over eight hours is possible. Longer working times are possible thanks to the possibility of easy recharging. In P2 and P1 working modes, productivity remains high, and consumption drops even further.

The operationCONTROL assistance system monitors the combination of load weight and lift height at a self-selectable load centre of gravity at 500, 600 or 700 mm. The function positionCONTROL offers various options for lift height preselection. Both digital assistance systems prove useful in the double stick test. In this test, a productivity increase of 31 percent was found compared to the transport of a single pallet. Due to the much more efficient transport, the energy consumption per 100 pallets is also lower. The practical operating time in the most powerful mode (P3) is thus up to eight hours and 36 minutes.

IFOY Test Verdict
Working with pallet trucks is no longer a compromise between safety, compactness, and ergonomics. With the new ERD 220i, Jungheinrich sets new standards for a safe, optimally protected and yet super-compact electric pallet truck. The performance is first class and challenges the competition.

Original test report, IFOY Innovation Check and pictures at
https://tinyurl.com/4cere5k9


IFOY Winner: Locus Robotics AMR Solution, Locus Robotics
Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV/AMR) of the Year 2022

The IFOY AWARD 2022 in the category “Automated Guided Vehicle” (AGV/AMR) goes to the Locus Robotics AMR Solution by Locus Robotics. The international jury selected the autonomous robot solution as the best new release in this category.

The US provider Locus Robotics offers its autonomous robots, which work collaboratively with warehouse staff, exclusively in a packaged rental model. After the set-up with a one-time “start-up fee”, a “core fleet” is available to the customer for his tasks. This is an average of between 45 and 50 vehicles per customer.

Now, Locus serves around 80 customers in about 200 warehouses with its picking system. The customers come not only from retail, but also from pharmaceuticals and industry (ABB). Picking into the 45-kilogram moving robot is extremely easy: the type and quantity of the products to be picked at the location and placed into the small load carrier on the Locus robot are very clearly displayed on the clear touchscreen. The tester has never found this so easy, intuitive and without a single second of "learning the ropes".

The peak season for Locus is November/December, because the Christmas business easily burdens retailers with four to five times as much picking work as during the year. The problem of the lack of skilled works solves Locus pragmatically and effectively by separating the employees from the picking trolleys: the work comes to the pickers, i.e., a classic goods-to-person principle. However, not stoically standing only at a fixed workstation, but “flowing” in a certain area, which normally, however, does not go beyond the warehouse aisle. This not only saves a lot of energy, but also makes the work far more effective and productive than picking along. The Locus software clusters the orders for the optimal picking route – of the roving units, mind you, not of the individual pickers – and which orders are connected on a container. In the field, the system works with high-quality Lidar. The picking system also increases productivity by the fact that the human at a single picking position, for example, spends only 8 instead of 12 seconds – that adds up. When picking, both hands are free for the products to be picked.

If necessary, a seasonal fleet can easily be added to the core fleet mentioned at the beginning, for example for two to three months for the Christmas business. The robots themselves are produced between May and November and are maintained quickly and leanly. A total of around 8,000 of these robots are currently in use, 2,000 of them in Europe. When the going gets tough, 100 to 500 of the robots can easily be produced – per week. The “package” also mentioned above consists of the uncomplaining replacement of the robots during maintenance; in the event of malfunctions, the customer does not incur any additional costs. Every three months, the so called “field service” comes to the customer´s premises to check on things. It also takes three months for the customer to implement such a system.

IFOY Test Verdict
With collaborative AMR, retailers, 3PLs, but also operators of special warehouses or manufacturers can greatly improve their effectiveness with an ROI of six to eight months. In doing so, an integrated execution platform uses proprietary optimisation algorithms and operational performance data to coordinate “man and machine”. About innovation, Locus has 33 patents in the US and seven in Europe. An additional 23 patents have been filed in Europe.

Original test report, IFOY Innovation Check and pictures at
https://tinyurl.com/3ayybtvd

IFOY Winner: Noyes Technologies, Noyes Storage
Start-up of the Year 2022

The IFOY AWARD 2022 in the category “Start-up of the Year” goes to Noyes Storage by Noyes Technologies. The jury voted the first robotics-powered, ultra-dense, automated, and highly flexible nano-logistics system to the top in this category.  

Customer behaviour in the food sector is more dynamic and volatile today than ever before. Providers of logistics systems in urban areas are faced with the challenge of expensive city centre rents, high labour costs and the desire of end customers to receive their orders ever faster. This calls for fast systems that must emit extraordinarily little noise. Noyes offers the first robotically operated, ultra-dense, automated, and highly flexible nano-logistics system especially for urban logistics.

Noyes can automate even the smallest areas with its storage technology and consequently enables fast delivery times at an affordable price. Up to 2,000 stock keeping units (SKUs) can be compressed in a 30-square-metre warehouse, for example. In city centres, where only a floor load of no more than 250 kilograms per square metre is permitted, the noise level above such a nano-storage unit may only be a maximum of 35 dB with the window open. This is particularly important when a building is used for mixed purposes as a logistics location and a residential building. The Noyes Storage plug-and-play system works with modules of 500 millimetres x 700 millimetres. A set-up time of only 10 minutes is calculated for each module, and this can be done at the customer´s premises during operation. Up to 8 boxes fit on one carrier. The first 70 storages with 1,000 to 1,500 modules will be sold by the end of 2022. The highlight: modules with cooling are also to be integrated by the end of 2022.

The Noyes warehouse can be optimised for any floor plan due to its modularity. The shelving system (Shelf) was conceived with a team of developers from Lebanon. The transport robot with a self-developed control system that works in it and can transport containers weighing up to 60 kilogrammes is made of aluminium and weighs 20 kilogrammes but will later give way to a plastic injection moulding weighing a maximum of 10 kilogrammes. Only a 230-volt connection is needed to operate the nano-storage unit. To be “fully” available during peak times, the robot docks with its charging pins at the charging station during times of low demand.

Customers from almost all industries can benefit from significantly improved space utilisation with the help of the ultra-dense storage system from Noyes. In e-commerce, this allows savings to be made in central warehouses in addition to space savings, especially in the pick & pack process steps. The solution also reduces the risk of picking errors and costly returns. In Q-Commerce (Quick-Commerce), either the existing assortment can be expanded, or existing space can be reduced due to the high warehouse.

IFOY Test Verdict
The ultra-dense urban nano warehouse from Noyes is particularly tailored to the needs of companies for proximity to their customers. In the nano-fulfilment hub, end customers in urban areas can either pick up their product themselves around the clock. Alternatively, last-mile delivery providers bring the products to the end customers sustainably and emission-free by bicycle or e-bike. With an ROI of twelve to sixteen months - depending on whether with or without a cooling solution – the acquisition of NoyesStorage pays off relatively quickly and even on a small budget.

Original test report, IFOY Innovation Check and pictures at
https://tinyurl.com/539ryzxj


IFOY Winner: robobrain.NEUROS, robobrain
Robot of the Year 2022

The IFOY AWARD 2022 in the category “Robot” goes to robominds with their neuronal robot operating system “robobrain.NEUROS”. The international jury chose the neural robot operating system as the best new development in this segment.

One platform, many applications, independent of components – this is how robominds comes to Dortmund. Optimised for the industrial PC robobrain and as a platform for all robots, grippers and other kinematics, NEUROS (Neural Robotic Operating System) creates an automation environment that is user-centric and easy to operate – for scenarios of any industry and company size. On the industrialised operating system, every function of the robotic components becomes a skill. The modular principle applies to both the software and the hardware. One skill, for example, is order picking. Several applications can be shown in the test setup: Palletising, box recognition, etc. One does not see oneself as a system integrator, but as a problem solver. So, the focus is not on the gripper itself, but always on the application. The skills, in turn, are easy to obtain: via the robominds Skill Store, individually adaptable or to develop yourself thanks to the robominds Skill Software Development Kit (SDK). There are vision skills (such as item picking or bin picking), control skills for the simple programming of robots or the fleet management of several robot cells, or driver skills for various robots, grippers, cameras, etc.

In times of shorter product life cycles and production quantities up to batch size 1, flexible processes place ever new demands on production and material flow for all companies. That´s why the processes are always coming to the fore – the process is actually the core of modern production. And this is where robobrain.NEUROS comes into the game: Valuable process knowledge becomes more easily accessible through the robot operating system. At the same time, data security, data integrity and trusted AI are maintained through adherence to European standards, which is essential in the digital world and especially in the production environment. The transformation towards adaptive processes affects about all processes in the production of a material or goods flow. In robotics in particular, the potential for flexible applications is being exploited, which are thus becoming increasingly diversified and finding their way into different environments and applications. Especially the new fields of robotics, for example logistics or medicine, are growing the fastest – and so is the market potential for NEUROS. robobrain.NEUROS is already being used by corporations in various industries, especially in the automotive industry, pharmaceuticals and diagnostics, and intralogistics.

Flexible systems independent of hardware: This means that standard components can be used, and the process adapted over their lifetime. This means that applications can not only be implemented cost-efficiently, but also that investments can be safeguarded for the future. The same advantages also apply to the areas of commissioning and operational capability – uncomplicated, fast, and far-reaching thanks to artificial intelligence (AI).

IFOY Test Verdict
The robobrain.NEUROS neural robot operating system can serve as a platform for the next generation of automation in logistics. It can be used to (create) an automation environment that is easy to use, economical and can save resources.

Original test report, IFOY Innovation Check and pictures at
https://tinyurl.com/mrympvd3


IFOY Winner: IKEA Project Flat Pack Picking, SSI SCHÄFER
Integrated Warehouse Solution of the Year 2022

The IFOY AWARD 2022 in the category "Integrated Warehouse Solution" goes to SSI SCHÄFER for the “IKEA Project Flat Pack Picking”, which was implemented for the largest German customer order distribution centre of the Swedish furniture store.

IKEA operates Germany's largest customer order distribution centre in Dortmund. Together with its long-standing partner SSI SCHÄFER, Ikea has successfully relieved its employees of heavy physical work. Heavy and large items are palletised in a volume-optimised manner with the help of the new picking module from SSI SCHÄFER, employees are freed from unergonomic work. At the same time, optimal packing patterns for the order pallets are automatically generated.

The introduction of this sustainable, innovative picking concept from SSI SCHÄFER in Germany´s largest IKEA distribution centre was preceded by a concept study starting in 2017. By means of a test installation and subsequent simulation, Ikea put SSI SCHÄFER´s flat-pack picking system, implemented for the first time at the Dortmund site, through its paces – and found it to be good. The go-live started in April 2021. Both the heterogeneous range of articles and the large proportion of heavy and bulky articles were a particular challenge here. It turned out that of the approximately 12,000 stock keeping units (SKUs) located in the distribution centre (DC), about 10 per cent, i.e., 1,200, can be handled fully automatically. These are usually the so-called “fast-moving items”.

The goal of the four gantry robots used, which are supported by two small gantry robots outside the actual picking area, was to relieve the employees of heavy tasks by means of automated gantry picking. One of the four gantry robots, with its 16 suction cups that grip the packaged goods from above and the cameras at the four corners, has a theoretical (technical) picking performance of 70 to 80 picks per hour. This makes the four robots the fastest link in the entire system. Together, the four gantry robots can handle a maximum of 312 picks; in real operation, they currently handle a good 200 picks per hour. Intermediate layers on the individual packages that get in the way of the fast lifting and transporting process of the packages are reliably detected and removed.

The turnkey, scalable order-picking solution basically consists of three areas: the left-hand part of the system for the dynamic provision of the slower-moving furniture packages, the actual picking area in the middle where the four “ro-ber” gantry robots do their work and to which no human has access, unfortunately not even for testing purposes, and the right-hand part of the system for the static provision of the fast-moving items. The gantry robots are equipped with multifunctional grippers that automatically adapt to the dimensions of the articles to be picked and the type of packaging by means of servomotor-adjustable suction cups. Packages of goods up to 2.5 metres in length and weighing over 60 kilograms are safely picked up from the source pallet and transferred to the order pallet. SSI SCHÄFER's Pack Pattern Generator ensures that the requested items are optimally arranged on the order pallet and can be picked up for the customer order.

IFOY Test Verdict
According to IKEA´s own information, the new system enables the company to handle about 3,000 more customer orders per week than before. However, SSI SCHÄFER's sophisticated flat-pack picking solution can also be adapted to a wide range of different SKUs outside the furniture industry and is therefore highly interesting for other industries as well.

Original test report, IFOY Innovation Check and pictures at
https://tinyurl.com/2p8ayv44


IFOY Winner: SYNAOS IMS – Vehicle Localization, SYNAOS
Special of the Year 2022

The IFOY AWARD 2022 in the category “Special of the Year” goes to SYNAOS. The international jury awarded the localisation system SYNAOS IMS – Vehicle Localization as the best new release in this category.

Most of the forklift trucks that drive around in companies are still controlled manually and are therefore not digitised or only rudimentarily digitised. With the SYNAOS IMS – Vehicle Localization system, a camera-based sensor kit ensures their cost-efficient localisation – using state-of-the-art computer vision technology. SYNAOS is a software company but has decided to build a small hardware: A small black box (19 x 12 x 6 centimetres). It is screwed onto a forklift and projects its images onto a screen.

The manufacturer has dedicated itself to eliminating the gaps in the localisation of manually controlled industrial trucks of all kinds: So, it is all about indoor localisation of industrial trucks. 95 per cent of companies have forklifts in use, but they are rarely well integrated into the value chain: Currently, only the transport order is digital; the forklifts themselves are not digitalised. As a result, there is no knowledge of where a forklift is located. There are forklift localisation technologies, but they are often not used. There is a reason for this: ultra-wideband or lidar technology are simply too expensive.

With the new system from SYNAOS, which works with so-called “markers”, a Localisation-as-a-Service (LaaS) tool, it´s different: Everything is already included in the price and the detection comes to an accuracy of about 25 centimetres. But the intelligence is in the software – plug and play. You can create transparency in a flash with SYNAOS IMS – Vehicle Localization. Where in the warehouse is a busy situation? What are the braking distances? Where are people driving around without a driving order? Even the truck that is always running late can now finally be pointed out. In short: you can observe the fleet utilisation exactly. And a very big USP compared to the conventional storage method is that the forklift only reports the position where it has driven a pallet; scanning the pallet or the products on it is no longer necessary.

SYNAOS expects CE certification in a few weeks. The already mentioned indoor accuracy of 25 centimetres is achieved with markers every 100 metres. The “little black box” operates with a power consumption of 7 watts and transmits its camera data – 15 images per second – via Wi-Fi for evaluation using computer vision algorithms. Apart from an acceleration sensor, no other input sources are required. In times of increasingly important cybersecurity, this is perhaps not entirely unimportant: the entire image processing of the system takes place locally on the embedded computer; no sensitive data need to be transferred to a cloud. After the camera´s image data has been processed, it is immediately discarded.

IFOY Test Verdict
The simple real-time localisation of all types of industrial trucks with the help of this very convincing localisation system helps customers on their way to the complete digitalisation of intralogistics. It is extremely easy to record fleet utilisation, but also to create heat maps for critical points in the warehouse or optimise warehouse layouts. The basic tenor: inexpensive hardware works together with intelligent software. Every industrial truck with a power supply and a mounting option can be equipped with the SYNAOS IMS – Vehicle Localization sensor kit – a huge market.

Original test report, IFOY Innovation Check and pictures at
https://tinyurl.com/ev6fps5j