Autonomous vehicles, cloud-based control systems, and intelligent warehouse management solutions are fundamentally transforming logistics – but these technologies only realize their potential with a stable and powerful communication infrastructure. A decisive contribution to the research of this infrastructure was made by the CampusOS project, funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, which was recently completed. The intralogistics specialist Still from Hamburg was significantly involved as a key industry partner and presented concrete results for industrial practice at the project's conclusion.
5G Instead of WLAN: New Standards for Intralogistics
The focus of the project was the use of open, modular 5G campus networks in the industry. Unlike manufacturer-bound total solutions from large providers, open campus networks consist of flexibly combinable hardware and software components from various manufacturers. This so-called disaggregated architecture allows for individual adaptation to industrial requirements and promises lower costs, higher reliability, and less dependency on single providers.
“Above all, guaranteed bandwidths and the reliability of 5G make the difference,” explains Ansgar Bergmann, project manager responsible for CampusOS at Still.
Still has been testing a 5G standalone campus network (5G-SA) at its own location since 2022. This involved examining use cases such as low-latency control of autonomous transport systems (FTS) and the transmission of high-resolution real-time video data in warehouse environments. The results showed that 5G offers significant advantages over WiFi, such as being less susceptible to interference and providing more stable transmission quality, especially outdoors.
“The private 5G uses a frequency spectrum licensed specifically for the user that is not publicly accessible. By using network slicing or TSN approaches (Time-Sensitive Networking), a bandwidth is guaranteed for relevant infrastructures and a stable networking of numerous devices is enabled – from autonomous transport vehicles to handheld scanners to AI-supported camera systems,” says Bergmann.
The open 5G networks developed as part of CampusOS are, according to Still, directly industrializable. They not only offer short-term benefits for practice but also lay the foundation for future mobile generations such as 6G or the use of new frequency bands like 26 GHz.
Efficient Networking as a Key to Automation
The increasing spread of Industry 4.0 applications, learning machines, and automated fleets requires seamless communication. Projects like the ARIBIC project, completed in 2024, which dealt with real-time 3D mapping, and open interface standards such as VDA 5050 are driving networking forward. However, uniform standards are often lacking, leading to isolated solutions and compatibility problems – a hindrance to the continuous use of mixed fleets from different manufacturers.
This is where VDA 5050 comes in, a cross-manufacturer specification for harmonizing communication between automated vehicles and control systems. Still is also actively working in this area to advance interoperability in intralogistics.
LogiMAT 2025: Stage for Interoperability and Innovation
At LogiMAT 2025, the topic of interoperability already received special attention: In the “Interoperability Hub,” companies like Wiferion, Continental Mobile Robots, Synaos, as well as partners like Omron, AWS, and PohlCon, demonstrate how mixed robot fleets can be reliably controlled. In addition to live demonstrations, expert panels, product presentations, and customer cases are planned.
