98 In operation | Magazino UGV factory logistics SOTOs for its new engine factory in Nuremberg (with further SOTOs planned for an upcoming battery plant in the same location), having previously been a SOTO pilot customer, along with Magazino’s close partners at ZF. OEMs and Tier 1s across other industries are also applicable markets for the robot. All about grip SOTO broadly consists of its front ‘gripper’ half and rear ‘backpack’ half atop a flat, square drivebase. The latter is a motorised shelf system that can be configured to accommodate a combination of SLCs, depending on operational requirements. The shelves are designed to tilt safely during transport and retrieval, and they are open to the frontal gripper for easy insertion and retrieval of crates. As well as being open to the backpack, the gripper section is also open on its front, left and right sides for taking or unloading goods in all three directions. Though called a gripper, it actually functions via a conveyor belt, rubberised and corrugated for high stiction, and mechanised to push outwards for handing off crates onto shelves or pulling boxes onboard from a slight distance. “It can handle up to 20 kg per SLC, and a total load of 240 kg, so the gripper had to handle 20 kg carriers in different orientations, especially since spaceconstrained environments won’t always permit payloads to be handed over in a longitudinal way,” Eldevik says. “Our gripper can therefore pivot objects up to 270° for when crates are stored in different orientations; it also contains a vertical axis mechanism for taking or giving SLCs at different heights. We also have something we call an SLC press inside the ceiling for holding an imperfectly oriented SLC in place, so the gripper can rotate underneath into the correct orientation for putting the container into the backpack.” A Blaze 3D camera from Basler is mounted at the rear of the gripper, feeding data into an autonomy system developed by Magazino. This system incorporates box-tracking computervision algorithms (originally developed for the TORU robot) to track the attitude and, in particular, the distance of boxes relative to the gripper. This information is used to guide the gripper’s movements. Another Basler Blaze 3D camera in the ceiling looks down onto the gripper, as a key functional watchdog for how securely crates are held and positioned by it, ensuring they will not get stuck inside SOTO, or in conveyor belts or racks. To identify crates correctly, and ensure exact material tracking and traceability from warehouse to factory, laser scanners first identify the shapes of shelves to validate that SOTO has arrived at the right location. An LED paired with a 2D camera near the front flashes to capture the barcode of the compartment where the SLC is to be placed or picked up for transport. The 2D camera also tracks QR codes along racks (for feeding parts into assembly lines, or empty crates into refilling systems) to account for correct heights and compartments, according to the requirements of the warehouse management system. “Those QR codes can be made by us if needed, which we place on special and easily installed adapters that we additively print very inexpensively through our partner network,” Eldevik adds. The adapter includes a special piece of reflective tape, which SOTO identifies using an additional LED. This ensures the robot is aligned correctly with the shelf, allowing it to safely deactivate the light curtain, which prevents accidents by ensuring no objects or human staff can reach into the robot (this is discussed later). Indoor mapping Given the importance of integrating SOTOs into existing production environments and logistics processes without any significant modifications, an extendable laser scanner is installed atop the robot body for recording a 3D map of the entire working area. This is done prior to beginning any routine operations to facilitate localisation during work without needing GNSS or installing indoor localisation beacons. It also increases SOTO’s maximum possible height to 2240 mm when the scanner extends to its full reach. “When SOTO is first delivered to a customer environment, the first step of deployment is to map out that environment,” Eldevik says. “We provide a handheld remote controller, which is quite similar to a gaming console controller. The December/January 2025 | Uncrewed Systems Technology SOTO’s gripper functions via a conveyor belt, rubberised and corrugated for high stiction, and mechanised to push outwards for handing off crates onto shelves
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