Warehouse Inventory Detection with Airship Drones

(Semi-)autonomous aircraft for inventory and quality inspection of pallets in block storage facilities

Dmitrij Boger, Michael Freitag ORCID Icon, Britta Hilt, Michael Lütjen ORCID Icon, Benjamin Staar ORCID Icon
JournalIndustry 4.0 Science
Issue Volume 40, 2024, Edition 2, Pages 56-63
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Abstract

The highly dynamic nature of block storage facilities limits the feasibility of manual stock recording. The frequent relocation of pallets, crates or pallet cages without fixed storage locations makes stock recording time-consuming and error-prone. Goods often have to be searched for. Improper storage can also lead to damage. The use of (semi-)autonomous vehicles has the potential to remedy this situation and enable automatic stocktaking via optical detection of goods This article describes the use of (semi-)autonomous airship drones for indoor areas, as these have a significantly longer operating time of several hours compared to classic multicopters. Specifically, a particularly lightweight sensor system was developed for the airship drone in order to realize 360-degree environment detection and to recognize relevant objects (pallets, people, pallet stacks). The functionality of the system was successfully tested in a realistic test scenario.

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Article

The complex dynamics of block warehouses pose major challenges to the manual stocktaking process. Frequent relocation of pallets, crates or pallet cages without fixed storage locations leads to a time-consuming and error-prone inventory process, wherein goods often have to be searched for and damages due to improper storage can occur. The use of (semi-)autonomous drones offers a promising solution to enable automated stocktaking, especially if these are appropriately equipped for optical goods detection.

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