Proximus and several of its partners have unveiled a 5G project in Nivelles, in the presence of Mathieu Michel, secretary of state for digitisation, and Willy Borsus, walloon minister for economy. Initiated by the Agence du Numerique, this project aims to leverage 5G and artificial intelligence to autonomously fly a drone into a covered storage warehouse to enable relevant, real-time information to be transmitted to the company’s stock manager. Although the solution will be tested at ID2Move‘s premises in Nantes initially, aim is to deploy it at Deltrian International‘s Fleurus warehouses.
As all warehouse managers in industrial environments know, it is difficult to monitor stock levels in real time and optimise locations. The Walloon company stocks a multitude of reference products in its warehouses. These are stored on pallets of different sizes, in boxes of all shapes and sizes, sometimes at the front, sometimes high up, and sometimes deep down. Moreover, identifying them is sometimes made difficult by barcodes located in different places. Added to which, these barcodes are often damaged or illegible. As a result, Deltrian International employees often waste a lot of time locating and retrieving products, then checking that they correspond to the right part number and encoding the stock issue or receipt.
ID2Move and Phoenix-Tech, along with its subsidiary Proximus Ada, have developed a solution that will enable autonomous drone flight within a covered storage warehouse. This allows relevant, real-time information to be transmitted to the company’s stock manager. To achieve this, the drone will rely on 5G, which enables faster, smoother and more stable information sharing, as well as on an artificial intelligence algorithm capable of identifying the multiple references present in the stock and locating the boxes in the warehouse.
Greater productivity and fewer stock-outs
The benefits of this solution are numerous. First, it will increase productivity thanks to better knowledge of the stock status of all items. It will also lead to increased storage space and greater stock security as well as reduced aisle congestion. In financial terms, too, the benefits are obvious, thanks, in particular, to a reduction in dormant stocks and a reduction in financial losses due to production stoppages caused by shortages of certain raw materials.
Initially, the project is being implemented as a test in ID2Move’s storage area in Nivelles. The solution will then be deployed on a larger scale at Deltrian International’s 15,000m2 warehouses in Fleurus. Eventually, the idea is, of course, to bring this new solution to other companies, both in Wallonia and throughout Belgium.
The roles in the consortium of companies behind the project presented in Nivelles are well defined: Proximus will ensure 5G coverage by setting up a secure 5G private mobile environment, Proximus Ada will develop the calculation algorithm ML (machine learning) and Phoenix-Tech will supply the drone, while ID2Move will play the role of project coordinator, enabling the solution to be tested in an environment identical to Deltrian’s warehouse but scaled down and without interfering with its day-to-day activities.
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