Whereas forklifts do work nicely for lifting and transferring heavy masses indoors, they’re cumbersome (in shut quarters), costly, and may’t carry masses over a sure footprint measurement. That is the place the FORMIC modular robotic transportation system is designed to return in.

The expertise is being developed by German startup FORMIC Transportsysteme, which is affiliated with the Karlsruhe Institute of Expertise. It incorporates a number of six-wheeled robotic transport modules, every considered one of which is supplied with cameras, a radio communications chip, and a jack that’s able to lifting as much as 2.5 tons (2.3 tonnes).

As many as 15 of the modules could be positioned below a single load, so long as there is a ample vertical hole beneath it for them to squeeze in. If all 15 are used, they’ll handle a complete load weight of 37.5 tons (34 tonnes).

Markus Breig, KIT

A human operator steers the swarm of robotic modules in actual time by way of an included joystick distant. As a result of the modules’ cameras and radios permit them to trace each other’s positions always, they autonomously coordinate their actions – so in different phrases, the consumer simply controls them as a bunch, not as particular person models.

An official business launch of the FORMIC system ought to happen later this 12 months. The modules could be seen in motion, within the video under.

Sources: Karlsruhe Institute of Expertise, FORMIC Transportsysteme