Project description
Making material flow systems faster
As e-commerce grows, the digitisation of the industry allows for faster, more flexible and more efficient manufacturing. Still, material flow systems are lagging behind. The EU-funded Celluveyor project is developing a multi-functional software-driven conveying and positioning system that makes material flow systems faster, completely flexible and more efficient. The system's core consists of hexagonal cells with several individually driven omnidirectional wheels. These cells form a flat surface, in a 'Lego'-like structure, with the moving wheels uppermost. Objects sit on these wheels and can be moved freely. The main objectives of this project are to slash cell costs, expand the current functionality to include other types of objects as well as increase the overall hardware and software usability.
Objective
"The strong growth in e-commerce and consumer expectations for ever-increasing product variety and fast delivery present logistics companies and manufacturers with unprecedented challenges. The digitisation of industry will enable faster, more flexible and more efficient manufacturing, including mass customisation, to meet these challenges but material flow systems have not kept up with the huge strides made in manufacturing. Even current state-of-the-art systems are mechanical constructions that take up a lot of space, whose layout cannot be changed once built and which can carry out only a single pre-defined function. Cellumation's innovation is the celluveyor, a multi-functional software-driven conveying and positioning system designed to make material flow systems faster, completely flexible and more efficient. The system's core consists of hexagonal cells with several individually driven omnidirectional wheels. These cells form a flat surface, in a ""Lego""-like structure, with the moving wheels uppermost. Objects sit on this surface and are moved by the action of the turning wheels. Each system takes up to 95% less space than competing systems, can handle all functions required and the function can be changed by customers' staff with a few clicks on a laptop. Cellumation has sold nine TRL6 prototype systems in Germany, Spain and the UK. The market is huge at €26bn+: every factory and every logistics centre has conveyor belts. Cellumation has keen buying interest from several well-known manufacturing companies in the EU and the US. The objectives of this project are to reduce cell costs by 50%, to expand functionality to include limp plastics as well as smaller objects and to ensure that our software and the entire system are easy to use. Cellumation's goal is for celluveyor to become the state-of-the-art conveyor technology and a key part of the distribution centres and manufacturing plants of the future."
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-2b - SME Instrument (grant only and blended finance)Coordinator
28359 Bremen
Germany
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.