Emptying a huge container box entails hard work – a job still mostly done hand. Together with partners in industry, the BIBA – Bremen Institute für Production and Logistics at the University of Bremen has come up with a novel robot that will be able to take over the task in future.
By now they are quite commonplace and everyone knows them: 40-foot standard containers, huge containers with large volumes. The most used sea containers in the world; they have a load capacity of over 65 cubic meters and a payload of about 26 tons. Emptying these containers is hard work. In the ports, it is still mostly done manually.
But in the future, a novel robot should take over the job. The BIBA - Bremen Institute for Production and Logistics at the University of Bremen is conducting research with its development partners BLG Handelslogistik, SCHULZ Systemtechnik (Bremen) and FRAMOS (Taufkirchen near Munich) in a new project with the title “Interactive Robotics System for Emptying Sea Containers” (IRiS).
Millions of funding from the federal government
The Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) is funding the three-year project under the Innovative Port Technologies (IHATEC) program with 2.2 million euro. The total funding amount is 3.16 million euro. The project is being supported by the project sponsor TÜV Rheinland, and project coordinator is BLG Handelslogistik.
1,800 boxes weighing up to 35 kilograms
A significant proportion of imported and exported containers are emptied and packed in the seaports. In what are now high-tech transport chains, the emptying of containers is one of the last non-automated processes, because there is still a lack of lean, easy-to-use, reliable and cost-efficient technical solutions. BIBA and its partners are now working on this. The project aims to improve working conditions and the efficiency of transhipment processes at seaports. The novel mobile robot developed in the project should be able to empty a container within a very short time with no need for major adjustments to infrastructure.
