The Falcon Project: Model-Based Design of Automated Warehouses

Due to the increasing scarcity of human operators and the fast development of technology, there is a trend towards higher levels of automation in warehouses. The increased automation level results in a large warehouse complexity and a correspondingly large warehouse design effort. To support the warehouse designer in his effort, Vanderlande Industries and the Embedded Systems Institute started the Falcon project in October 2006. The project focuses on the development of professional systems using a model-driven approach. Vanderlande Industries is the project’s carrying industrial partner, which means that their automated warehouse development is used as the basis for the project. This chapter introduces the partners and the research themes of the Falcon project and describes the structure of the book, which presents the results of the Falcon project.