Industry 4.0 is no longer a buzzword of the future in logistics, but a challenge in day-to-day business. Throughout the industry, tasks are becoming more complex and response times shorter. When goods are called off, it is no longer a matter of days, but hours. Loading and unloading, packing and loading trucks, containers and other means of transport, picking, reloading - especially during the pandemic and lockdown, rapid speed is the order of the day. In this way, the physical work of people is also visibly becoming part of the digital transformation.

This is precisely where German Bionic's technology comes in, at the workplace in logistics environments. With an intelligent power suit, the company is focusing on integrating manual work in the warehouse into digital processes, optimizing it and making it safer - in places where full automation or robotic systems reach their limits. "Full automation is currently not an option for most logistics companies, either economically or for practical reasons," says Norma Steller, Head of IoT at German Bionic. "What is needed instead is the creative intelligence and flexibility of humans. At the latest when a robot encounters unusual parcel sizes or formats or an exotic packing scheme, a human has to be on hand to solve the problem."

Connected via the German Bionic IO Cloud, manual work is integrated into the digital processes of the Smart Warehouse

© German Bionic

According to the manufacturer, the 'Cray X Power Suit' is the world's first cloud-connected robotic exoskeleton for workstations in logistics environments. Self-learning, it supports workers in picking, loading and unloading as well as reloading heavy objects by actively strengthening their lifting movements, thus relieving the back muscles and stabilizing the spine. In this way, the intelligent power suit protects the health of workers based on data, reduces the risk of accidents, lowers energy consumption and increases performance and productivity by up to 20%.

The exoskeleton is slipped on like a backpack, strapped on and adjusted, and the 'Cray X', made from ultra-light carbon fibers, becomes the intelligent link between man and machine in logistics and intralogistics processes. The power suit provides support of up to 30 kg per lifting operation. On average, the exoskeleton relieves up to 1.5 tons per hour. "We know that logistics workers lift an average of around twelve tons every day during their shifts. That's equivalent to the weight of two elephants. We free them from these elephants," says Norma Steller.

The exoskeleton integrates the workers into the digital workflow and at the same time directly protects them from excessive strain and fatigue. This increases productivity and reduces errors: according to the company, the error rate can be reduced by up to 10% per shift and picking performance can be increased by up to 22% per shift.

The 'German Bionic IO Cloud' robot platform integrates the workers equipped with the exoskeleton into the digital workflow and the cloud with real-time data acquisition and accurate data granularity, enabling seamless, interoperable data exchange between all company systems.