Hensel Fahrzeugbau specializes in the manufacture of fire department vehicles. These special vehicles are not assembled on production lines, as they require a great deal of craftsmanship. One obstacle here is that materials from the warehouse are sometimes required during production that cannot be provided in advance. In order to optimize the material flow, the medium-sized company was looking for ways to automate these material transports. With the help of the Xito platform, Hensel can implement a suitable automation solution easily and cost-effectively without its own IT department.

Developing an automation solution without an in-house IT department

On average, between 3,000 and 4,000 parts are used in the production of fire department vehicles. These range from equipment such as hoses, axes and blue lights to assembly parts such as aluminum brackets, screws or nuts. Only around two thirds of the materials required for assembly are known before the work begins. These parts can be provided on the vehicle in advance. The remaining third, however, are small parts that are only required at short notice during assembly; the employees have to fetch these parts separately from the warehouse. Sometimes these are parts that are needed as quickly as possible so that assembly can continue without delay. Valuable working time is therefore wasted on recurring trips to the warehouse and the laborious search for the required parts.

In order to improve employee productivity, Hensel Fahrzeugbau decided to introduce an automation solution for transporting spontaneously required materials from the warehouse to the assembly area. The medium-sized company from Waldbrunn near Würzburg was faced with two challenges: Firstly, a solution had to be found in the complex robotics market that would suit the individual conditions on site. Furthermore, the second-generation family business with around 70 employees does not have its own IT department. This is also associated with the second challenge: Once the appropriate robotics modules have been found, they have to be combined into an overall solution and integrated into the operational processes and the existing warehouse software. In addition to the search for a suitable robotics solution, there is also the complex task of assembling the modules into a solution. In the end, everything also has to be cost-effective.

Automation with Xito

The solution that has now been implemented consists of the Xito software platform and various robotics solutions. "Xito has made it easy for us to use robotics for our company," says Ines Hensel, Managing Director of Hensel Fahrzeugbau. "Even getting started is very easy: the platform offers the option of a free and non-binding initial consultation." Companies can describe their idea in advance and explain where and how they want to use robots and which problems they want to solve.

Xito is a modular system. The Xito Engineering Suite is the integrated development environment and is based on an approach for model-based low-code engineering. With the suite, building blocks of the Xito marketplace can be combined without programming. Solution modules in the modular system are capabilities that are required by robots in applications, for example transporting, pick & place, but also gripping, recognizing, moving to a position, docking to a cell/station. The building blocks are digitally modeled in the software and can therefore be evaluated by machines. Developers can combine robotics solutions to create complete systems. Modules from third-party systems can also be integrated into the Xito environment via various interfaces.

Manufacturers can also integrate their existing components. For this purpose, the software interface of the module is recorded in a digital model and can thus be evaluated and used by the Xito software.

This model is used to create a so-called abstraction layer, a kind of digital outer shell, for the module. It is connected to its existing component (hardware or software) with little effort. This is done once by the manufacturer or a third party.

New modules can be sold via the marketplace or shared in the closed 'Xito library' within a team or company. This creates a collaboration tool that facilitates cooperation in small and large development teams.

Cost-effective robot automation

In the case of Hensel Fahrzeugbau, this was to be handled by an IT service provider. Here too, the platform supports the search. In this case, Awesome Technologies is the IT service provider of choice and supports the implementation of the desired automation: "Together, we have developed a solution with which the required parts can be requested directly via a tablet at the assembly station," says Manuel Stahl, founder of Awesome Technologies. "A robot in the warehouse collects the individual parts and a transport robot brings them to the desired assembly station."

In order to combine these components into an overall solution, the modules must be joined together via interfaces. The costs for such integration often account for up to three quarters of the total costs. "To reduce these costs, the modules in the Xito platform are digitally modeled," explains Dr. Dennis Stampfer, CEO of the operator of xito.one. "As in the case of Hensel, this makes the various components of an automation solution compatible with each other, drastically reducing development costs. In the end, you are up to 95% more efficient."

Robotics solution used

Hensel Fahrzeugbau asked itself which system was better suited to its application: an automated guided vehicle (AGV) or an autonomous mobile robot (AMR). AGVs, for example, follow lines or magnetic loops on the floor, whereas AMRs can localize themselves freely in space and find their own paths. Waypoints can be defined 'virtually' without markings in the room. Based on these considerations, the decision was made in favor of 'Robotino', an autonomous mobile robot from Festo. It was developed according to the size (diameter) of humans, making it very small compared to other mobile robots and therefore suitable for confined spaces, for example for working in very narrow warehouses. A Universal Robot UR3e is used as the articulated arm robot.

Simple and cost-effective robotics solution for SMEs

"For us as a medium-sized company, robotics is an increasingly important topic. With Xito, we don't need our own IT department to find the solutions we want," summarizes Ines Hensel. The necessary functions can simply be clicked together with the mouse. Manuel Stahl from Awesome Technologies adds: "Small and medium-sized companies in particular need to implement individual applications. These can only be implemented quickly and cost-effectively thanks to XITO's combination options."