With CDM starting to look increasingly towards the land-side of airports to optimize passenger flow processes in order to have a more predictable aircraft turnaround, it is not surprising that hitherto less visible processes, like baggage handling, are also coming under increasing scrutiny to find opportunities for improvements. Long labor intensive, baggage handling is taking important strides towards higher levels of automation, something that will fit nicely into the information managed environment of the future collaborative decision making environment.
The Integrated Robot Loading concept that was implemented at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol’s South baggage hall to create a smarter baggage system, was implemented by Vanderlande Industries and Grenzebach Automation The “Baggage on Demand concept” or pull-concept using batching and automatic baggage loading robots gives airports the ability to manage the growing amount of baggage in an ergonomic and cost efficient way.
Baggage make-up is the loading of ramp-carts and containers, which are driven to an airplane just before departure. In the Baggage on Demand concept, all baggage from check-in and transferring bags are first buffered in a storage facility, and then sent to a robot on demand. The robot loads the ramp-carts and containers automatically. The LTM (Logistics Transport Manager) manages the baggage flows in the system, and the robot replaces the muscle power of the workforce. This concept has first been deployed as part of the 70MB program at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, is future-proof, and is intended primarily to raise efficiency and reduce heavy manual labor. The Baggage on Demand operation handles the bulk of the daily baggage volume.
The combination of several innovations and developments make Integrated Robot Loading a unique product, resulting in more productivity per square meter building and per handling operator while greatly improving the working conditions, process quality and bag security at the same time.
– Managing flight make-up based on so-called batches from a crane-racking Early Bag Store (EBS) that guarantees individual, energy efficient retrieval per bag.
– Using fully automated robots to load bags in a predetermined sequence onto carts and into containers (first trials date back 5 years, but development and fine tuning of concepts and system components have resulted in drastic improvements, supporting efficient and robust operation).
– Measuring each individual bag on its characteristics, like dimensions and weight, to determine an optimal loading/stacking pattern inside the robot cell.
– Performing the majority of the heavy work of lifting bags in ramp carts or ULDs with robots. Each robot cell can load 24,000 kg per shift of 8 hours and can be operated by one operator. All with much better working conditions and a so-called NIOSH value beating the normative target of the Health and Safety regulator.
Lost bag? Ask the robots…
