The other members of the project that will develop two Gottwald battery AGVs and battery-changing station include Hamburger Hafen & Logistik (HHLA), the Institute for Vehicle Technology (ika) at the RWTH Aachen University and the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Heidelberg (ifeu).
The pilot project to be trialled at HHLA’s Container Terminal Altenwerder, in Hamburg will receive EUR3m in funding from the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety with the view of providing electrical mobility capability in commercial transport.
While, HHLA will support the development work and integrate the new technology in its existing fleet of AGVs, the ika institute will provide a detailed simulation model including the battery and the relevant main and ancillary modules to support the technical design of drive train.
Additionally, the ifeu institute will deliver fundamental research to assess the Battery AGV from an ecological point of view and find ways to control the timing of the charging processes to level off the overall load on the harbour mains and optimise the use of renewable energy sources.
Demag Cranes member of management board, Thomas Hagen said that the initially higher investments in the battery-changing station, batteries and chargers are more than offset by the much reduced costs of energy and maintenance.
