The unstoppable growth of online shopping is proving to be a challenge for inventory management, which must optimize its capacities to keep pace with demand. High-bay warehouses and narrow-aisle forklifts enable higher storage density. However, the restriction of being able to use only one forklift in an aisle for safety reasons has a very negative effect on productivity.

In order to meet this challenge, ELOKON is developing a digital co-pilot under the name AngELO, which will make it possible to operate several narrow aisle forklifts simultaneously in the same high-bay aisle. AngELO is based on the principles of swarm and artificial intelligence: it will enable VNA truck to communicate with each other as well as with the warehouse infrastructure. AngELO warns acoustically and optically as soon as vehicles in the same aisle come dangerously close. It is planned that vehicles can be braked automatically in such encounters.

The two-year development project is financially supported with a six-figure Euro sum by WTSH GmbH, the Business Development and Technology Transfer GmbH of the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein. In the cooperation between ELOKON and WTSH GmbH, one of the most important digital future technologies, artificial intelligence, will be further promoted in the German federal state of Schleswig-Holstein.

The aim of the cooperation is not only to create new jobs at ELOKON, but also to make the economic potential and opportunities of AI visible and to incorporate them into further product developments for intralogistics together with partner companies, for example in proximity warning and fleet management systems. In addition, ELOKON plans an active participation in the newly created "AI Transfer Hub Schleswig-Holstein" to further increase the innovative and competitive competencies  of our beautiful federal state Schleswig-Holstein.