AanDriveenbehouden.nl – Second generation logistics AGV platform Siemens Netherlands and VDL

This autumn, Siemens and VDL Automated Vehicles will launch the second generation of their automated logistics AGV platform. To give their intensive cooperation extra cachet, the parties signed a cooperation agreement at the Hannover Messe.

VDL has been building AGVs for years that are used at container terminals in ports all over the world. Smaller AGVs were also added in 2017. VDL is thus targeting industrial companies with so-called ‘mixed traffic’ on their premises. This combination of automated and non-automated transport is becoming increasingly relevant in the European market.
With the second generation of AGVs, VDL and Siemens are responding even better to current challenges. Consider the increasing tightness on the labor market and the shortage of drivers. If you automatically use vehicles – with an availability of 95 percent – for journeys on your site, the available drivers have the space to carry out more ‘outbound’ transports. In addition, electric transport helps companies to become more sustainable and reduce their CO2 emissions. Previous pilots show that the number of damages is also lower.

‘Eco-system thinking’

Siemens supplies the complete drive, automation and digitalization – from the electric motors to the visualization software. The complete system is first built in a virtual environment. The logistics process is then simulated and optimized in this ‘digital twin’.
Sieens Netherlands CEO Dirk De Bilde: “We are pleased that today we have confirmed our intensive collaboration with our partner VDL. The combination of both our expertise and the platform approach – eco-system thinking – can drive innovations in the field of automated transport for industrial accelerate applications even further in half the time.”
Karel Smits, business unit manager VDL Automated Vehicles: “The state-of-the-art technology of this second generation of AGVs helps industrial companies to make logistics at their plants more sustainable, more efficient, safer and more reliable. We look forward to it to further develop this technology in close collaboration with Siemens in the coming years for successful, broad application in many sectors.”

Interview

Would you like to read more about the collaboration between Siemens Netherlands and VDL AV? Then read the interview here with business unit manager Karel Smits and John Thelen, account manager of Automated Vehicles) and Herm Brunott, account manager Siemens.