DRIVOLUTION is one of the Mobilising Agendas under Portugal’s Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) and includes the participation of INESC TEC. The goal of this Agenda, which brings together 38 partners and involves an investment of over €50M, is to create a Factory of the Future model capable of addressing the challenges of the automotive sector. As a result of INESC TEC’s involvement, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle designed to carry out logistics operations in industrial warehouses has already been developed.
Designed to operate fully autonomously in indoor environments, contributing to the digitalisation and optimisation of logistics processes, this Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), tested at Volkswagen Autoeuropa’s facilities in collaboration with the company’s teams, integrates advanced perception technologies, indoor localisation and trajectory planning.
“These advanced technologies make it possible to perform three main tasks: stock reconciliation and verification, identification of available storage spaces, and localisation of materials within the warehouse,” explained André Dias, researcher at INESC TEC.
The first operation – stock reconciliation and verification – relates to the automatic reading of labels, such as barcodes or radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags installed on shelves or products, and the comparison of the collected data with the Warehouse Management System (WMS), ensuring the consistency of inventory information. The second one – identification of available storage spaces – involves the visual and sensory analysis of shelving units to detect empty positions, as well as the generation of real-time information to support dynamic management of storage space.
The third feature – localisation of materials within the warehouse – concerns the use of computer vision and/or additional sensors to identify and confirm the position of stored materials, reducing search time and increasing item traceability.
“With these capabilities, the UAV contributes to the creation of a more efficient and safer warehouse, towards meeting the objectives of the Factory of the Future, enabling inventory operations to be carried out quickly, accurately and without the need for direct human intervention,” added André Dias.
Another area of research and development being carried out by INESC TEC within this Agenda relates to the use of augmented reality for quality control on an automotive production line. Recently, researcher Filipa Ramalho presented the scientific paper “Human-Centred Augmented Reality in Manufacturing: Enhancing Efficiency, Accuracy, and Operator Adoption”, co-authored with the company Skill Augment, at the International Conference on Advances in Production Management Systems, held in Japan.
The researcher (André Dias) mentioned in this news piece is associated with INESC TEC and IPP-ISEP
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