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KNOWLEDGE
RTS-STILL – the Autonomous Forklift Truck
“FM-X Autonom” – a Revolution on the Factory Floor
The vision of a fully automated factory has been
in existence for some time. However, the vision
is becoming a tangible reality with the evolution
of autonomous systems – such as the
“FM-X autonom”. The L3S Institute for Systems
Engineering of the Leibniz university of Han-
Motivation
The L3S Institute for Systems Engineering of the Leibniz
Universität Hannover works in cooperation with the STILL
GmbH towards developing an autonomous forklift truck
to facilitate flexible navigation and materials handling. An
overriding aim of the project is to reduce costs, by using
flexible automated materials handling vehicles – both in
the warehouse, and in production. Economic gains can be
expected, for example, by considerably reducing the risk
of accidentally dropping material or misplaced goods. Furthermore,
little or no infrastructure changes (such as track
guides) are necessary. The possibilities for an autonomous
forklift truck are enormous since the transition between
manual and automated operation can be optimised. As well,
the transport processes can be reproduced – even those in
which a high degree of care is needed when positioning.
Project Approach
The autonomous forklift truck has been designed and realized
using the conventional fork lift carrier. For autonomous
navigation of the forklift truck, robust self-localization is a
main requirement. Therefore, we introduced a self-localization
system based on ceiling structures, with the assistance
of a 3D laser scanner specially developed for navigational
tasks. The 3D laser scanner perceives the ceiling
structure as three dimensional; the actual position of the
forklift truck is determined by comparing it with a previously
prepared ceiling map. The localization system enables
FORSCHUNGSZENTRUM L3S L3S RESEARCH CENTER
nover has developed an autonomous forklift
truck, in co-operation with STILL gmbH, to
facilitate flexible navigation and material handling.
The forklift truck is able to recognize
pallets, to lift these up and to move them to
another location autonomously.
The essential innovation of the autonomous forklift
truck can be found in the localization equipment:
A 3D ceiling localization system enables
navigation in highly dynamic environments. Further
important achievements of our project have
been the interoperability of the system with the
human driver and its flexibility to perform pallet
handling also when the pallet position is not
precisely known in advance.
self-localization even with curved, sloped or stepped ceilings.
The benefit of using ceiling landmarks is that ceiling
structures don’t vary over time compared with those on
the ground.
Experimental results show that the localization system
works robustly and with high precision in industrial environments.
A long term test has been carried out in an
industrial hall with a stepped and curved ceiling. In this
test, the autonomous fork lift truck covers a distance of
100 meters through different halls, with ceilings of various
heights and curvatures.
To enable pallet handling, the autonomous forklift truck is
able to identify pallets, picking them up and automatically