WORLD’S FIRST MANUFACTURER-INDEPENDENT FLEET MANAGER

20.01.2025 | naise.eu

ENHANCING OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY THROUGH LOCALIZATION SOLUTIONS

THE CHALLENGE: LACK OF COORDINATION IN INDUSTRIAL OPERATIONS

In modern automated industrial environments, companies often use mobile robots for transportation alongside traditional means such as forklifts and tugger trains. The integration of these different systems presents significant challenges, as the lack of coordination and cooperation between them leads to inefficient use of the existing fleet.

One example of this challenge is seen in the use of the NAiSE Intralogistics Platform, where there are 40 traffic participants. Imagine what would happen if each participant had its own manager, with no cooperation between them. This scenario means the systems are unaware of each other’s activities, increasing the risk of accidents, such as a forklift entering an area where a robot is operating. Without synchronization, resource allocation becomes difficult to optimize, leading to longer idle times, poor task assignments, and reduced situational awareness.

As operations expand, plant managers are faced with the need to integrate various mobile robots from different manufacturers. This complexity increases because each robot typically has its own fleet manager. The lack of interoperability between these systems creates unforeseen challenges. To stay competitive and turn this situation into an advantage, companies are turning to manufacturer-independent fleet management solutions.

NAiSE FLEET MANAGER: A MANUFACTURER-INDEPENDENT SOLUTION FOR MIXED FLEET

The NAiSE Fleet Manager is a manufacturer-independent solution designed to tackle the challenges of intralogistics by enabling transparent, flexible, and simple communication and control across all members of a mixed fleet. By integrating various traffic participants—such as transport mobile robots, forklifts, and tugger trains—into a single cohesive platform, our Fleet Manager ensures that all participants are aware of each other’s status, positions, and tasks.

Unlike traditional systems that often require costly hardware installations and lengthy deployment times, the NAiSE Fleet Manager integrates seamlessly with any mobile robot through a software-based and transparent approach. This integration creates a fully interconnected environment, linking the NAiSE manufacturer-independent approach with the robot fleet manager. All different types of mobile robots become an integral part of the final testing routine, which includes rigorous tests carried out either at the NAiSE testing center or directly in the robot’s final application area. This ensures a smooth, efficient, and reliable operation across the entire fleet.

NAiSE Fleet Manager supports the integration of a wide range of robots including AGVs (Automated Guided Vehicles), AMRs (Autonomous Mobile Robots), LMRs (Logistics Mobile Robots), cleaning robots (such as Kärcher), tugger robots, automated forklift robots, delivery robots, cobots (Collaborative Robots), inspection robots, and automated shelf scanning robots. This diverse range allows the system to cater to various operational needs within industrial environments.

In recent years, the use of the VDA 5050 standard has become widespread across Europe. However, many companies that need to use standardized robots still face the challenge of owning non-standardized robots, which must now be integrated into a unified process. This is where NAiSE steps in, offering a solution that can seamlessly integrate mobile transport robots, regardless of the communication protocols being used. This ability to work with diverse systems and protocols is what sets NAiSE apart in the market, with dozens of successfully completed projects involving this type of integration. The flexibility and compatibility of NAiSE Fleet Manager ensure that companies can move forward without the limitations of standardized or proprietary systems, enabling smooth and efficient operations across various technologies.

Another feature of the NAiSE Fleet Manager is its robust error monitoring system, which in the event of any malfunction or error related to the mobile transport robots, the system detects the issue and sends real-time notifications to the relevant personnel, facilitated by a central MQTT protocol. This proactive approach enhances operational reliability and ensures the continuous, smooth running of plant activities.

ENHANCING FLEET MANAGEMENT WITH REAL-TIME LOCALIZATION TECHNOLOGY

While addressing the integration challenge, the NAiSE Fleet Manager also tackles another critical aspect: the need for a comprehensive overview and real-time monitoring of manually driven vehicles. By leveraging NAiSE RTLS (Real-Time Localization System), plant managers gain the ability to precisely locate every participant in the operation.

Thanks to this technology, communication becomes two-way. While you can see the real-time position of your forklift driver, if you have connected the forklift’s terminal to NAiSE solutions, you can send all the tasks the driver needs to complete directly from a single platform. This eliminates the traditional use of paper and creates an environment free from communication noise that often arises from human contact and verbal exchanges. By integrating these features, the entire fleet—both automated and manually driven—becomes more efficient, transparent, and connected.

This comprehensive monitoring is made possible by the NAiSE’s dynamic 3D or 2D visualization of the plant. This visualization provides an interactive real-time view of the entire facility, offering decision-makers clarity and confidence in their operations.

THE FUTURE OF INTRALOGISTICS: STREAMLINED OPERATIONS FOR TOMORROW