The test site is located in a logistics area close to the port of Emden. In addition to parking areas and driving routes, it includes a busy roundabout. These conditions allowed the project partners to investigate a range of traffic situations. A particular focus was on interaction between automated and manually driven vehicles during ongoing logistics operations, as well as on integrating the technology into existing workflows.
Christian Vollmer, Board Member of the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand responsible for Production and Logistics and member of the Extended Executive Committee: “AutoLog demonstrates the potential of automated driving for our logistics operations. For us, the key is not just to develop new technologies under laboratory conditions, but to test their practical suitability where our logistics operations take place every day. Together with our partners in Emden, we have gained valuable insights into how vehicle movements can be automated more intelligently and logistics processes further developed in the future. We intend to draw on this experience as we continue to develop the technology.”
Technology components working together
AutoLog combines several technology components into an integrated system for automated vehicle logistics. The Unikie Marshalling Solution (UMS) provides overall control and coordination of the vehicles. This requires vehicle technology, environment perception, communications infrastructure and logistics software to work together reliably.
A digital representation of the parking areas supports the planning and coordination of vehicle movements. For communication between the system and the vehicles, the project uses Deutsche Telekom’s public 5G network, enhanced with additional capabilities to meet the application’s requirements.
The UMS runs on an edge cloud system. Data is processed via a high-speed, dedicated fiber-optic connection in close proximity to the cellular network to meet the technical requirements for time-critical applications.
Klaus Werner, Managing Director of Business Customers at Telekom Deutschland: “AutoLog demonstrates how industry-ready connectivity can form the digital backbone for automated processes throughout vehicle logistics. The combination of low-latency, reliable connectivity, edge infrastructure, and intelligent vehicle control creates the technical foundation for scaling automated vehicle distribution from the end of the production line via rail and ship to the end customer.”
Insights to support the further development of vehicle logistics
Other areas of focus included standardised communication and safe interaction between people and technology. AutoLog is guided by the ISO 23374 standard for Automated Valet Parking and investigates how automated vehicles can be integrated into complex logistics environments. This includes interaction with people and other road users, as well as the coordination of automated vehicle movements with existing logistics processes.
Vesa Kiviranta, CBO Automotive & Marshalling Solutions at Unikie: “In Emden, we have demonstrated that automated vehicle movements can be tested even in a demanding logistics environment with mixed traffic. The interaction of our marshalling solution with the existing infrastructure and manually driven vehicles is an important step. The experience gained helps us to further develop the technology and assess its commercial readiness to other logistics environments.”
Work on automating vehicle movements is also underway elsewhere in the Volkswagen Group. As part of a collaboration between the AutoLog project and Audi’s Ingolstadt site, the project partners tested the automated loading of vehicles onto rail wagons. This brings another stage of vehicle logistics into focus: precisely positioning vehicles as they are transferred to rail transport. The successful pilot adds another use case to the experience gained in Emden and demonstrates the range of tasks along the logistics chain that can be redesigned and further developed through automated driving.
The conclusion of AutoLog marks the end of the joint testing phase. The insights gained are intended to inform the further development of automated logistics processes and provide a basis for assessing additional applications. In the long term, automated vehicle movements could help make logistics workflows more flexible, safer and more sustainable, while opening up new ways of organising vehicle transport within plant and terminal areas.