On November 13, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries announced the completion of a joint demonstration project with Kirin Beverage and Kirin Group Logistics, aimed at establishing elemental technologies for automating the loading and unloading of goods from trucks in beverage warehouses. Going forward, development and verification will proceed with the goal of practical application.
The joint demonstration was conducted from August 2024 at "LogiQ X Lab," a demonstration facility within "Yokohama Hardtech Hub (YHH)," a co-creation space for manufacturing operated by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in the Honmoku area of Yokohama City, as well as at the Kirin Group Logistics West Nagoya Branch in Aichi Prefecture.
In the joint demonstration, as part of a "smart and connected" solution that applies Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' standard platform "ΣSynX" (SigmaMac), which synchronizes and coordinates various mechanical systems, a new unmanned forklift currently under development to be equipped with ΣSynX was used to establish elemental technologies that would enable flexible autonomous driving and safe human-machine collaborative work, such as proper cargo sorting in warehouse operations, rearrangement, changes in travel routes according to storage conditions, and highly efficient storage methods.
<A "smart and connected" solution using ΣSynX>
Through the joint demonstration, they were able to establish a process for automating a series of cargo handling operations, including unloading from trucks, handling in warehouses, and loading onto trucks, and verify its effectiveness in logistics operations.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is progressively working to automate and intelligentize traditional logistics warehouse operations, which were previously performed safely and efficiently through the know-how and skilled techniques of operators, by dividing them into three areas: "picking," "receiving and shipping," and "truck loading and unloading." The "automated picking solution," which is responsible for handling cargo within the warehouse, has been operational at the Kirin Group Ebina Logistics Center in Kanagawa Prefecture since December 2024.
