Linde Material Handling has held its Automation Summit in Germany where it has launched its Robotic Case Picker (RoCaP), a robotic vehicle for autonomous order picking in warehouses.

The RoCaP has undergone successful testing with European drugstore chain Dirk Rossmann, which has subsequently announced it will proceed with its investment in the vehicles for its operations.

The RoCaP is equipped with a multi-axis gripper arm that picks individual packages from the rack and places them on an integral carrier.

Linde MH says the RoCaP helps address the long-standing, labour-intensive issue within warehouse operations, of order picking from mixed pallets or rolls.

“The underlying objective is twofold,” Linde states, “to reduce the workload for employees and minimise errors while also addressing the increasing labor shortage in the warehouse sector. 

“The innovative Linde RoCaP promises to bring a breakthrough in automating this task.”

The new Linde RoCaP is based on the Linde L-MATIC HD, an automated pallet stacker with a load capacity of 1.6T and a travel speed of up to 7.2 km/h. 

The vehicle, navigation, safety technologies, battery compartment, lift mast, and automation arch, are the same as those of the series vehicle.

The RoCaP is equipped with a 3D camera which incorporates artificial intelligence chips from AI developer Nvidia, which takes an optical measurement of pallets in real time with the robotic arm utilising a special vacuum technology to grasp and lift the package into its desired position.

Rossmann’s logistics expert Luca Borg was one of the speakers at Linde’s automation summit, an invitation-only event where the company’s automation products and ambitions were on full display. 

Hosted by Ulrike Just, Linde MH’s executive VP sales and services in EMEA and Frank Heptner, VP and co-lead of its automation business unit, the Automation Summit was held at the Linde Experience Hub in Aschaffenburg, and was attended by customers, consultants and media.