The Background

Demand for automated solutions for inland shipping

Inland shipping accounts for 50% of the national liquid goods transport volume and plays a prominent role. Liquid goods, such as chemicals and mineral oils, are produced, processed, refined and sold in Germany - and delivered and transported all over the world for these purposes. The German tanker fleet comprises around 450 ship units. The most important transshipment points for chemical products and mineral oils are located along the major waterways of Germany and at the well-known chemical sites and mineral oil ports.

In view of these dimensions and the strategic importance of the industry for the country's economic performance, process improvements, for example in the loading and unloading process or in the transportation process itself, are far-reaching and have a considerable multiplier effect.

Current tanker loading processes are sometimes characterized by manual, physically demanding and error-prone work.

• Today, tanker loading processes are generally considered to be complex, slow and labor-intensive, partly because a high safety standard must be maintained. The loading processes are mostly carried out manually and the entire process area of handling liquid goods has a low degree of automation. The high personnel requirements and the low process speed are due on the one hand to the legal requirements, including those relating to the handling of hazardous goods, environmental protection and explosion protection, and on the other hand to the lack of automation solutions in this area.
• A consideration of ergonomic aspects also shows the high physical strain to which the operating personnel are exposed. Lifting heavy hoses from the ground and transporting them over long distances requires a great deal of physical exertion, while the high time pressure and serious consequences of errors also expose personnel to a high level of psychological stress.

In order to counteract these aspects and the growing shortage of personnel in the face of demographic change, greater automation of this process area is necessary. Thus, there is an urgent need for a future-proof and (partially) automated solution for the handling of liquid goods in German inland ports.

As part of the project, partial and full automation solutions are therefore to be implemented to remedy this situation. The special framework conditions in the port environment must be taken into account. For example, the legal framework currently still requires constant monitoring by specialist personnel. Furthermore, the hose transfer scenario is considered complex, as the environment (port pontoon, ship) and all other processes are subject to dynamic changes and situational adjustments, which make the strictly planned static programming of a robot very complex. Full automation with robots therefore only makes sense in a future-adapted environment.