Science fiction techniques have become daily tools on the airport runway. Among them is a dog -like Boston Robot, Spot, which has moved from the grandmother to a meaningful part of the innovation of air charging. As it was presented in modern tests at Munich Airport, Spot not only wandering to display – it actively helps to reshape how charging works in an automatic digital future.
“In fact, the beauty around the Boston dynamic spot is that it is a ready-made system that can be used already,” says Dr. Eng Harald Siki, head of the logistics company at Fraunhofer IML. “We can test our sensory systems. We can reprogram this with the new artificial intelligence system.”
During the field trials in Munich, Spot did much more patrol. “We looked at whether the spot could be able to monitor and identify platforms – exempt or loaded – to the point that you are no longer forced to search for it anymore,” explains Sieke. The robot was combined into a larger system that includes an independent forkline and two other automatic platforms, developed in Fraunhofer.
“There was a kind of telling others as they could find platforms,” he says. “The independent system – the spinal lever – will come and receive it, hand it over to the next system. So we have covered all the operations through the warehouse here. It is really a representative of the entire system and show that there are possible things.”
However, the tests not only highlighted success – they also revealed the place of need to receive future research. “We are now able to determine perhaps some blind sites that we still need to cover or do more research on it,” Sick notes.
Fill the work gap
The potential of robots in aviation logistics is not only related to future attractiveness-they are their roots in solving problems in the real world such as lack of employment and safety in the workplace. “In our high vision, it is a completely independent operating system,” says Secki. “This means that you are bringing your shipment somewhere and you have independent transport facades across the system.”
Although full automation is still implementing, the current generation of robots and systems plays a transitional role. “We need to go to the first steps,” he says. “These first steps help us fill these functions in which we can no longer make people, and support those who remain.”
Seiki stresses that it does not represent a threat to human functions, as it is a tool for support and empowerment. “It makes the task more attractive, which makes it less burden in terms of the strength of the required muscles,” he says. “Some even crawl down to the abdomen of the plane – those uncomfortable tasks. Initially, we see these systems take over and help us fill in the absence of people, while making the job more fun for those who remain.”
Efficiency, too, is a main driver. “In the future, we will have a deficiency in people – and perhaps at a certain stage not only the lack of people’s price,” Siki explains. “We really have to increase our efficiency.”
It refers to times of shift in aircraft as a critical case: “The plane is present for flying. If you have a brief transformation from these systems, you win money in the end. You get the most expensive your supplier in the air – where you earn money.”
A broader digital test
Fraunhofer’s vision does not stop in the place. The innovation laboratory manages a broader digital test, combining robots, artificial intelligence, computer vision, and automation to re -imagine how the goods move. The challenge now does not invent every technology, but its organization in a system works.
“We are now looking into automatic systems, but we also have artificial intelligence,” says Secki. “We can have Amnesty International to help us with predictive analyzes, predictive maintenance, computer vision-such as setting dimensions and characteristics, then calculating accumulation of ULD.”
It is a standard approach – developing and publishing parts that can work individually but sparkle when combined. “There are different topics here that can be covered with multiple systems,” he says. “Currently beauty is that we have systems.”
This synchronization, however, is a real challenge. “We as a research organization for applied research – it is important that these things are already used or that new is developed in a way that we can use in the short term of time,” explains Sieke.
The goal is to integrate functional tools today with the advanced technology of tomorrow. “We are able to compose it in a ready -made system today, but also ready tomorrow – and perhaps the next day for tomorrow,” he says. “We can define systems like Spot much better than to do to achieve what, in any time frame.”
Design for today, and preparing for tomorrow
The future of aviation logistics has not been classified only, but it is built, tested and improved in places such as digital Fuunhofer experiences and lively experiences in major airports. From reducing material pressure on the Earth’s sets to simplify the transformation of aircraft, the risk is high – and the gains, which are likely to be transformative.
This generation of innovation is not related to removing people from logistical services, but about removing incompetence, risks and restrictions. “It comes to improved jobs, making operations more intelligent, and preparing our systems – not only for what they should be today, but for what they should be tomorrow,” says Dr. Harald Siki.
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