The daily operating times of eight hours over five days, the spatial conditions and several system simulations with real data led to an individual AutoStore system configuration with 52 robots and 23,500 bins on nine levels. The height of the AutoStore grid was determined by the existing hall. In order to guarantee the high picking rate of 1,500 retrievals per hour, nine carousel ports are provided as picking stations. For the time being, two carousel ports will be used for the 100 or so storage operations per hour, with three additional carousel workstation modules preconfigured for expansion. The single-double grid with overall dimensions of 31 x 40 x 4.2 meters (L x W x H) is clad on three sides. The 23,500 containers in the standard format of 649 x 449 x 330 millimetres each allow a payload of around 30 kilograms. 52 Red Line robots load and unload the eleven Carousel workstations. This requires a loading process of around five hours per robot per day, for which a total of 41 loading stations are available at the edge of the grid.

Maximum dynamics with 1,500 picks per hour

The picking and packing stations are located directly at the AutoStore system. © Hörmann Logistics

In principle, all workstations are equipped in such a way that goods receipts or order picking can be carried out there at any time. The incoming goods are delivered to the two storage ports by the warehouse employees. With 1,500 retrieval picks per hour, the cycle time per pick is around 19 seconds. In the grid system, stacks of nine bins are placed directly on the warehouse floor. A single-double-grid rail system is mounted above the container stacks, on which the battery-operated, autonomous robots travel. They pick up containers cooperatively, re-sort them as required and serve them at the carousel ports. The bins can be flexibly subdivided using dividers for the use of several items.

Independent charging

The robots move in two directions thanks to their four pairs of wheels arranged at an angle, allowing them to reach any position in the grid. They communicate via WLAN with the AutoStore control system, which assigns the transport orders to the individual robots. If the order load is low or the battery capacity is too low, the robots drive themselves to one of the charging stations located at the edge of the grid. The AutoStore controller is located on the connected service platform. Complete picking orders (task groups) with the individual picking items (tasks) can be transferred to AutoStore for picking items. With a lead time of 30 minutes, AutoStore's integrated optimization algorithms ensure greater efficiency when processing orders. The related items are stored in the shipping carton, which is provided with a barcode that is "married" to the shipping order number. The AutoStore system at Geomix in Liezen was put into operation in the fall of 2020.