Linde “flies high” with its inventory dron, Flybox
Linde Material Handling has presented at the last edition of the LogiMAT fair its new proton of inventory dron, the Flybox, developed by this manufacturer and supplier of technological solutions to facilitate the work in that field. The energy supply and control of this ship is guaranteed by its linkage with the automated stacker L-Matic.
The Linde Flybox dron is approximately 50 centimeters wide, equipped with six rotors, a camera, a barcode scanner and a rangefinder
It rises in the air after a previous buzz and moves slowly to stand in front of the stacked materials, taking photographs of the location of all the pallets and capturing the bar codes of stored goods. When it reaches the last level, it moves to the right and left, synchronized with the Linde automated stacker that stays on the ground and continues with the documentation process from top to bottom. It then moves to the next position and ascends again, repeating this pattern until you have documented all the pallets and until all the information has been transferred to the computer. Everything is documented and information can be retrieved through your application. The program shows the position of the shelf on the screen, including the corresponding barcode and its photograph.
“What makes us different is that we use our dron together with an automated wheelbarrow,” says Tobias Zierhut, head of warehouse vehicles at Linde Material Handling
The Linde stacker, L-MATIC, is in charge of guiding the Flybox during its inventory mission. Both vehicles are interconnected through a voltage converter and a self-adjusting cable. With this innovative link, Linde has managed to solve the two challenges that always prevented the use of drones in the warehouses: energy on the one hand (drone batteries usually last about 15 minutes) and the location under roof without GPS reception by the other.
Thanks to its innovative geo-navigation, the Linde system always knows exactly where the dron is. The vehicle transmits the surface coordinates and a height sensor installed on the dron measures the corresponding altitude.
The dron developed by Linde Material has been designed to simplify to the extreme the process of inventory legally demanded, saving time and money to the companies
According to experts, companies spend up to eight per cent of the value of material inventoried on salaries of eventual staff or their own employees, forms of work and auxiliary equipment. At the same time, the manual inventory process interferes with operations and errors, accidents or damage to articles and equipment are frequent. All this will be part of the past thanks to Flybox.
The dron has been designed to operate completely autonomously, even outside working hours: at night, during the weekend, at Christmas …
Linde Material Handling will offer the Flybox in the future as an optional extra in its MATIC automated vehicles. The dron will be marketed in a 1.5 x 2 m package compatible with the stacker. It can easily be placed on the loading arms or the forks of robotized vehicle of Linde at the moment of making the following inventory. Once the dron has scanned the position of all storage levels, it will return to the initial takeoff point and wait for its next mission into its packaging.
The launch of the Flybox is planned for 2018
Source: Linde Material Handling Ibérica S.A.