Today’s driverless transport systems are highly flexible, but they cause a lower throughput. Conventional continuous conveyors allow a high throughput but trigger high costs. The central unit is the biggest culprit here, because every change requires expensive rewiring or even rewriting of the control program.

What can be done? The Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT) developed the FlexConveyor as an answer to this question: the system is flexible, does not require a master computer or central infrastructure, and serves as a “simple” conveyor line, a sorter or more complex conveyor line.

The FlexConveyor consists of identical, square modules that perform all tasks autonomously and decentral. “Plug and Play” enables the layout to be set up and modified quickly and easily. Users can also insert a large number of conveyor units into complex layouts without blockages, collisions or deadlocks occurring. The system automatically finds alternative routes if segments are disrupted.