Palettes are central elements of logistics, yet their potential often remains untapped. The Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML has investigated in the research project "Pal2Rec" how palettes can become valuable data sources with sensors and artificial intelligence (AI).
Equipped with sensors, pallets detect movements, impacts, and tilting events. The collected data trains an AI that creates activity profiles from it. These provide insights into logistical processes such as loading or storage. The goal: to make processes more transparent and efficient, reducing costs.
“The data provides valuable insights that help companies specifically identify weaknesses and fully exploit optimization potential. Another significant advantage can be predictive maintenance, which allows potential damages to be detected early before they even occur,” explains Julian Brandt, project manager of Pal2Rec and research associate at Fraunhofer IML.
The study shows that affordable sensors are also suitable for these applications. This facilitates the use of the technology in practice and makes smart pallets economically attractive.
Final event on February 25, 2025
The project was funded with 180,000 euros by the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV) as part of the mFUND program. On February 25, 2025, the results will be presented – both on-site and online.
Registration: www.iml.fraunhofer.de.
