Survey on energy efficiency measurements in heterogenous facility logistics systems

Basically there are two ways to improve the energy efficiency of heterogeneous material flow systems - modification of technical components and control with intelligent strategies. In order to reduce the consumed energy the design, configuration and control strategy of different conveyor systems have to be analyzed by mechanical and electrical measurements. To quantify the need of energy under conditions as close as possible to reality a testing facility with different conveyor elements and electrical drives with power monitoring capabilities was installed in order to give a database for further research activities. On the one hand the acquired data can be used to optimize the efficiency of the total drive train. On the other hand they conduce to develop new intelligent control strategies for an energy efficient operation of heterogeneous facility logistics system. Eventually, the design of a monitoring system in a testing facility is the topic of this contribution.