Today we would like to present the AiF IFL project “roboKOM”, which we successfully completed last year together with Prof. Elbert, Julia Wenzel as well as Giorgi Tadumadze and Dr. Weidinger from the Chair of Management Science/Operations Research. The project dealt with the application areas of mobile picking robots and was consequently dedicated to a current and relevant topic.

The use of mobile picking robots has increased in recent years, but for the most part, instead of possible potentials, the challenges and problems that arise from the acquisition of picking robots are mostly seen. Manual picking is often reverted to in order to remain efficient in day-to-day operations. Construction measures are mostly only taken into account when building a new warehouse in the form of automated high-bay warehouses, i.e. the highest automation level of warehouse systems.

The research project took up this point. In the recent past, some studies have already dealt with efficiency increases of mobile order picking robots, but the area of application was already assumed in these studies. Often, only the application area of e-commerce is considered. Now the question arose in which areas, preferably within SMEs, a meaningful application would be guaranteed. The aim of the research project was to identify possible areas of application and to provide interested practitioners with instructions on the cost-benefit ratio.

More information about this project can be found here .

You can find more information on the results in our report in German language.