Siemens inaugurates an international competence center for AGVs and intralogistics in DFactory Barcelona

• The new Digital Experience Center (DeX) will show customers how Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) and Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) interoperate in the real and virtual worlds, and with different systems.

• DeX will support flexible production and digital transformation in key industries such as automotive, aeronautics, intralogistics, and food and beverage.

• Spain has been designated by Siemens as one of the key countries to develop this technology and in this competence center the company will collaborate with partners such as Universal Robots, Leuze, Stabli and Argologic.

Barcelona, May 23, 2024.- Siemens today inaugurated a pioneering international competence center for the development of Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs), Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) and intralogistics at DFactory Barcelona. This new Digital Experience Center (DeX) will show customers how they interoperate in the real world and in the virtual world with different systems.

Spain has been designated by Siemens as one of the key countries to develop this technology, which will help flexible production and digital transformation of key industries such as automotive, aeronautics, intralogistics and food and beverage.

The presentation event was attended by José Ramón Castro, Managing Director of Siemens Digital Industries for Spain and Portugal; and Blanca Sorigué, General Director of the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona, the entity that promotes and manages DFactory Barcelona. Castro highlighted Siemens’ commitment to Spain, “with the creation of new competence centers and hubs in recent years that meet the digitalization needs of Spanish industry”.

This is the case, among others, of the global competence center for skidding technology for the automotive industry, which Siemens has in Spain, or the Centre of Excellence for the

Naval Sector (Cesena), which from Ferrol provides support in terms of digital transformation to the entire shipyard industry in Spain.

For Blanca Sorigué, general director of the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona, the incorporation of Siemens is “great news for the entire DFactory Barcelona ecosystem and a new commitment to continue transforming the logistics sector. As a sector that moves the world, it cannot be left behind, and the incorporation of new technologies in the supply chain is essential to continue innovating, enhancing and accelerating the development of the industry that represents 10% of GDP in Spain”.

The new DeX will demonstrate to the industry how Siemens products and solutions work in the real world and in the virtual world applied to AGVs and AMRs. In this way, they will be able to interoperate in complete safety in heterogeneous intralogistics environments that work with different systems and that must meet production volumes that fluctuate constantly.

The new showroom will allow the planning, simulation, and validation of AMR systems, as well as the testing and verification of interaction with machine/robot cell stations and with load handling stations and material handling equipment. The performance of entire fleets will also be analyzed to optimize their management.

At the same time, fail-safe wireless communication between AMRs and machines will be checked and implemented, operation and maintenance procedures will be standardized, and autonomous navigation and obstacle avoidance systems will be monitored. Another function will be to carry out a standardized integration between fleet managers with MES execution systems to avoid conflicts.

In parallel, several Siemens partners will collaborate on-site in the Digital Experience Center to improve the operability of their different technologies. This is the case, among others, of Universal Robots, Leuze, Staubli and Argologic.

With the inauguration of the DeX of AGVs and AMRs in DFactory Barcelona, Siemens completes its international presence with fifty Digital Experience Centers around the world.