“A total of around 200 different small load carrier types are in use at the Kölleda site. In the first step, we opted for the two ‘high-runners’: one of the largest and one of the smallest SLC types. Together, these account for around 30 percent of the total volume. Our goal was to test the system’s performance at both low and high packing densities—that is, either 15 SLCs per pallet for the large type or 60 SLCs for the smaller type,” explains Stefan Hintz, Logistics Manager at Leadec in Kölleda.
At the end of February 2026, the solution went into regular operation and is being further expanded. The goal is to have more than half of the small load carriers sorted automatically in the future. People and cobots work hand in hand in this process. The new colleague, Kalle, supports the team in ensuring consistent process quality and high availability.
“We deliberately chose a cobot to enable safe collaboration between humans and robots. In addition, a user-friendly interface makes setup and optimization easier. New small load carrier variants can be added quickly and without complex programming,” says Stephan Hihn, Global Head of Product Management at Leadec. The solution is also set to be deployed soon in other logistics centers operated by Leadec, opening up additional areas of application.
This is where the technical flexibility of Vathos’ solution really pays off. It is hardware-independent and can be easily integrated into existing sensor, robotics, and IT infrastructures. “Our robot vision software supports common 3D sensors as well as various robot systems and communicates via standardized interfaces. The connectors for camera and robotics systems can be activated or swapped out via plug-and-play without integrators having to manually reconfigure settings. Object recognition itself is based on multiple combined AI models and enables reliable identification even in unstructured environments,” explains Nicolas March, CEO of Vathos.
