From human to machine: logistics becomes autonomous

“The future of logistics revolves around autonomy and flexibility,” says Frank van Dijck, CTO of Vanderlande and president of the European Materials Handling Federation (FEM). During the National Congress on Autonomous Systems in Drachten, he provided insight into the technological course of his organization, as a world market leader in baggage systems and logistics solutions.

Van Dijck emphasizes the drastic changes: “Whereas in the past you would see a cart with suitcases, today you still see that. But we are well on our way to fully automating that.” Vanderlande, active in airports, warehouses, and package processing, develops solutions ranging from hardware to intelligence and service to integration.

Autonomy as an answer to scarcity

A significant driving force behind the innovations is the tight labor market. “Many people simply no longer want to do the work,” says Van Dijck. “We see shortages in baggage handling, warehouses, and sorting centers. And at the same time, consumer expectations are constantly rising – think of one-day delivery.”

That is why Vanderlande is working on fully autonomous processes. A recent proof of concept shows luggage being transported from check-in to the airplane without human intervention. “We have already done tests in which autonomous vehicles move and load luggage containers independently,” says Van Dijck. “The video looks futuristic, but it is starting to become a reality.”

Frank van Dijck, CTO Vanderlande

Luggage will soon be flying itself

The goal? An end-to-end solution for baggage handling, right up to the plane. But that is easier said than done. “A backpack with handles, labels in strange places - that makes the process difficult to control,” says Van Dijck. “Nevertheless, it can be automated.” With the help of machine learning, robots learn to handle a wide range of shapes and weights. There is room for human supervision: “The machine is increasingly making the decisions, but humans remain at the helm.”

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Warehouses face a different challenge: the enormous diversity of products. “Nowadays, you have to be able to pick anything - from a shoebox with a loose lid to a bag of vegetables,” says Van Dijck. “Our robots learn with every pick. They recognize shapes with vision technology, try a grip, learn from it, and improve their strategy. Not just individually, but as a whole fleet.”

According to Van Dijck, pickability is now at 81 percent, with the ambition to grow to 95 percent. “We are doing this through self-learning algorithms and by developing better grippers. Think of a combination of vacuum and mechanical fingers.”

Collaborating with Toyota and AI assistants

In addition to autonomous vehicles in the warehouse, developed in collaboration with owner Toyota, Vanderlande also focuses on smart assistants. “Our AI assistant helps operators make better decisions faster. Instead of dozens of screens and buttons, you ask the system a question, and it makes a proposal based on data from multiple sources.”

AI also offers a solution in maintenance. Thanks to predictive maintenance, the number of failures has already been reduced by 84 percent. “We now use GenAI to link anomalies in shuttle behavior to maintenance history and manuals. This allows us to easily determine which shuttle has priority and what needs to be done.”

Vision of the future

Vanderlande consciously looks beyond today's technology. “We have developed four scenarios for what the world might look like in 15 to 20 years,” explains Van Dijck. “Is it a world of abundance or scarcity? Is it about the individual or the collective? We choose our innovation directions based on that.”

The five central themes are: integrated city logistics, everything-as-a-service, far-reaching automation, AI for performance improvement and digital-physical integration.

But whichever scenario becomes reality, “autonomous systems and AI will fundamentally change logistics. Perhaps not exactly as in the videos of Boston Dynamics, but the sector is certain to transform.”