AUTLOG

Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits

Tracking System

AUTLOG


AUTLOG

Fraunhofer IIS is currently collaborating with partners on the AUTLOG project, which is targeted at the auto industry and aims to provide a link between the domain of automation and logistics on one hand and that of identification and tracking on the other. The bulk of Fraunhofer IIS’s work is in the development of a tracking system, which the institute is working on with relevant industry partners.
The AUTLOG tracking system will combine various positioning technologies (AOA, RTT, inertial sensing). The overarching objectives of the project are:

  • to adapt wireless positioning and tracking technology for manufacturing environments,
  • to subsequently develop software components that act as links between manufacturing execution and logistics systems, and
  • to exemplify the benefits of this linkage through the closed-loop feedback of information from the process control system into the production scheduling system.
Our project partners, who are users of IT systems in the context of auto manufacturing, are interested in a solution that provides the following capabilities:
  • reliable matching of vehicle body identification data with production orders,
  • consistent relay of production order and body identification data to production systems and associated control units,
  • feedback of quality-related data into order management systems,
  • real-time information about the status of all vehicle bodies throughout the body construction, paint and assembly stages,
  • provision of information about the current state of production, plant conditions, the whereabouts of bodies and the status of customers’ orders, ideally in real time,
  • simplification and harmonization of the systems currently used, such as portable data storage devices, bar codes, data matrix codes and additional body tracking calculations,
  • release of workers from non-value-added activities which are currently necessary because vehicle bodies and components are not continuously identifiable, for example barcode scanning of tags in order to identify components to be used and tasks to be carried out or to document the use of components and tasks carried out, and
  • horizontal integration of all production-related information systems with the manufacturing execution system, combined with new ways of providing information to users concerned with production, logistics, maintenance or quality management.