BMW founds new company to develop robotic logistics solutions

November 27, 2020: BMW Group has founded IDEALworks GmbH – a fully-owned subsidiary headquartered in Munich, 'to become a leading supplier of autonomous robotics solutions in the logistics sector.'

The name "IDEAL" stands for Industry Driven Engineering for Autonomous Logistics.

“In founding IDEALworks, we are creating a new business segment for our logistics solutions. In recent years, our logistics innovation team has been working in-depth on the digitalization and automatization of production logistics and has developed some unique solutions. The Smart Transport Robot, STR, in particular, has met with great response and has seen demand from both within and outside of the BMW Group. Founding IDEALworks GmbH is now the logical next step for the BMW Group as a driver of innovation,” explained Milan Nedeljković, the member of the board of management of BMW AG responsible for production, to mark its foundation.

“We are entering a completely new terrain with IDEALworks GmbH. Up until now, our development has focused on automotive production and its logistics,” said Jimmy Nassif, CTO IDEALworks GmbH. He continued: “Our perspective is changing now. We are becoming a provider of logistics robotics beyond the automotive industry. We are preparing some innovations for the coming months."

Smart Transport Robot
The Smart Transport Robot, STR, was developed in 2015 in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute. The flat, autonomous and mobile robots can transport goods weighing up to one ton to their destination. They independently calculate the best route and move freely around the space using the SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) navigation method. The SLAM algorithm does not require permanent navigation transmitters to be installed in buildings and can therefore be set up quickly in a new environment without requiring any structural adjustments. An integrated battery module from the BMW i3 can supply the STR with power for at least an entire shift. The next generation of the STR will be rolled out at the end of 2020. Currently, more than 130 STRs are already in series production at several different BMW Group production sites.

Pilot projects
"With the Smart Transport Robot, we have launched a highly competitive product. From October onwards, we have been carrying out pilot projects at companies from a wide range of industries. These trials show just how robust and versatile the STR is," explained Markus Bauer, COO IDEALworks GmbH. "The success of the pilot project and the resulting demand for the STR were decisive in founding IDEALworks GmbH. We want to develop IDEALworks into a top player among the providers of industrial logistics robots in the long term," Bauer continued.