Collaborative Prototyping

"Collaborative prototyping" accelerates development projects, especially in the field of mobile machinery. Here, the many years of experience of STW and its partners are pooled to jointly develop technological solutions. In fields such as robotics and automation, this co-operation is becoming increasingly important in shaping the innovations of tomorrow and driving constant progress.

Innovation studies are essential to assess the need for, and feasibility of, new technological developments. For example, risks can be recognized at an early stage and resources can be saved. Early studies ensure that the prototype development goes in the right direction and that a mature and marketable product is created as a result. STW attaches great importance to harmonious and effective cooperation between the partners in order to make the best possible use of synergies and maximize the benefits of the joint expertise.

Different perspectives and competences flow into the development process and increase the quality and diversity of the developed products. Collaborative prototyping improves both the speed and quality of innovation, which is crucial in today's fast moving world of technological progress.

The project "MAL Mowibot" is a collaboration between Sensor-Technik Wiedemann (STW), AS-Motor and the Fraunhofer IVI.  It realizes a specific use case for automation in professional green space maintenance. For this particular case, the project combines the "AS Sherpa 940" ride-on lawn mower with the helyOS software to coordinate multiple machines efficiently. The project demonstrates the potential of collaborative prototype development to deliver innovative solutions for complex challenges, e.g. in agriculture and green space maintenance.

The project

As part of the co-operation between STW, AS-Motor and the Fraunhofer IVI, the "MAL Mowibot" was presented at the "demopark" trade fair in Eisenach. It demonstrated how the use of the "AS Sherpa 940" ride-on lawn mower in combination with the helyOS control center software enables efficient, automated surface preparation. Of particular signficance was that a single user could coordinate several machines simultaneously in a so-called swarm, a functionality enabled by advanced STW control hardware and software solutions.

Technical implementation and the learning process

Through implementation of the prototype system, STW achieved important technical milestones and gained valuable technical insights. The focus at STW was developing the interface to the helyOS control station system and implementing control functionality with on STW hardware. This resulted in standardized software modules for the automation of mobile machinery, such as the localization of the vehicle based on GPS coordinates, the control of Ackermann-steered vehicles and local path planning based on supporting points. Within the application, the modules communicate via DDS. A system model was created for the integrated vehicle and control code in a SIL environment. This enabled automated testing of the entire control functionality on the development computer. 

Future development and objectives

Through this collaboration, STW identified functional modules that will help OEMs with their own development. STW, together with the project partners, will to develop these further.