Amsterdam launches high-tech baggage handling system

Amsterdam Airport Schiphol  officially opened a 15,000-sq.-m. baggage hall as part of its effort to increase the handling capacity of AMS by 40% to 70 million bags annually. The South Baggage Hall is located on the south side of Departure Hall 1 and is able to facilitate handling for several airlines for both check-in and transfer baggage. In the future it will be a dedicated SkyTeam hall.

The new baggage hall is based on a method for baggage handling developed by AMS and KLM to create a more efficient process, reduce the physical demand on workers and better utilize space. Vanderlande Industries, IBM and Grenzebach Automation designed, built and tested the "smarter" baggage system, which incorporates six robot cells for automated loading of bags into containers and carts. The robots "pull" bags from storage "on demand," releasing them on the conveyor belt only when needed to prevent an overload of the system. It is expected that up to 60% of all checked luggage in the South Baggage Hall will be handled by robots.

The 21-km. transport conveyor contains other innovative technologies like AS/RS (Automated Storage and Retrieval System), a baggage storage mechanism with 36 cranes managing more than 4,200 bag positions. Also included is Destination Coded Vehicles, an interconnected, synchronized system that ensures every single bag can be located at any point in its journey.

AMS integrated the baggage control system with passenger check-in information to streamline baggage tracking and more quickly return misplaced bags to passengers.