The real-time digital twin of a warehouse is coming!

At GI 2025, we will find STILL, a specialist in intralogistics solutions, in the Smart universe: digitalization, automation, mechatronics. The company with 800 employees in France and 9,000 worldwide, has just presented an innovative project that could revolutionize warehouse management: the ARIBIC (Artificial Intelligence-Based Indoor Cartography) project (1), a virtual double, an exact replica of the warehouse, instantly updated and accessible in the cloud. Explanations…

In a warehouse, it is the dream of many people to know in an instant where a pallet is or how many storage spaces are available! Currently, manual actions sometimes escape the systems and make this information inaccurate. Thanks to a 3D digital twin updated in real time, these errors can be avoided. This system allows the objects and spaces in the warehouse to be visualized live, thus providing total transparency. These are the bases of the ARIBIC project which took place from March 2021 to the end of 2023, today unveiled by STILL.

In practice…

“The necessary data is automatically collected using sensors installed on the carts used in the warehouse. They capture the environment, and the information is then sent to the cloud, where it is combined and enriched. Each cart movement updates the digital map, creating a virtual model that faithfully and instantly reflects the real state of the warehouse,” explains STILL.

Interest for businesses

The digital twin offers considerable time savings by allowing warehouse managers to quickly locate items and visualize available areas without having to move. It also facilitates process optimization by improving the organization of routes and storage structures, while enabling real-time inventory management. This makes operations smoother and simplifies decision-making. Finally, security is enhanced thanks to the automatic detection, via the 3D map, of defective infrastructures and blocked emergency exits.

The ARIBIC project has laid a solid foundation for future digital applications in the field of intralogistics. These innovations will enable further automation of processes, optimization of workflows and improvement of warehouse management. Starting next year, STILL will begin integrating these new solutions in pilot sites.

(1)The ARIBIC project

The following were involved in the ARIBIC project: STILL, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), the University of Toronto, the STARS laboratory and the Canadian sensor manufacturer LeddarTech. The funding was provided jointly by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWI) and the Industrial Research Assistance Program of the National Research Council of Canada (NRC IRAP). The intralogistics manufacturer STILL participated in particular with its autonomous order picker OPX iGo, which is already well equipped with sensors and camera technology.