Breaking ground in intralogistics with the ActiveShuttle from Bosch Rexroth

The intralogistics of manufacturing companies face challenging demands: Competitive pressure, increasing product and component diversity, fluctuating production figures, volatile markets – these framework conditions demand a highly flexible material flow. With the ActiveShuttle transport system, Bosch Rexroth is opening up a new chapter in intralogistics. The core element of the system is the innovative AMS software. It organizes the material flow using ActiveShuttle while at the same time allowing to connect with other Rexroth solutions, such as the APAS production assistant and the ActiveAssist worker assistance system. As a result, the AMS achieves a material flow efficiency that sets new standards in intralogistics.

As the “brain” of the autonomous ActiveShuttle transport system, the AMS organizes all intralogistics material flows. The embedded safety concept ensures maximum safety for both people and machinery. The SIL2 and Performance Level d certified safety laser scanners continuously compare the position, route and traffic situation of the vehicles with the help of the AMS. The software controls the entire ActiveShuttle fleet and ensures a seamless flow of material, not least thanks to automatic map updates. Furthermore the AMS provides a highly efficient and flexible order management. Operators can process transport orders manually, e.g. by tablet. However, the orders can also be triggered automatically, for example by existing ERP or MES systems. The AMS then assigns the transport job to an available ActiveShuttle and then processes the transport, so that virtual and physical stocks match up. 

Connected Assembly & Logistics 

For comprehensive solutions within assembly and logistics, collaborative robots such as the APAS production assistant and the ActiveAssist assembly assistance system can also be connected to the AMS. In this way, the systems can communicate with the ActiveShuttle and report the demands to the AMS. Due to this intelligent data exchange the AMS enables the connection of assembly and logistics. Companies benefit noticeably from the high degree of automation. 

For this purpose, the AMS stores all the movements of the ActiveShuttle fleet and makes this data available for analysis. This opens up further optimization potential and offers a significant additional benefit, characterized by smaller batch sizes, less material and warehouse stocks and shorter material throughput times. 

Whether cyclic transport or consumption-based material supply: A wide range of transport concepts can be implemented by means of the overall ActiveShuttle system, the APAS production assistant, the ActiveAssist and higher-level customer IT systems. The scalability of the system is particularly helpful in this context: Once implemented via Plug and Go, AMS fully automatically controls the entire fleet navigating to and from the various locations – even with variable batch sizes and destinations.