The goods-handling specialist Linde Material Handling (MH) and the drugstore chain Rossmann will present at the Linde Automation Summit in Aschaffenburg on 12 and 13 November 2025 a new robotics vehicle for autonomous picking in the warehouse. The “Linde Robotic Case Picker (RoCaP)” features a multi-axis gripper arm, with which it removes individual merchandise packages from the shelf and assembles them on a carried goods carrier. After successful tests, Rossmann will invest in the first devices.
For years, according to Linde MH, solutions have been sought to automate the manual assembly of orders on pallets or roll containers, thereby not only relieving the staff but also reducing error rates and counteracting the labor shortage in the warehouse area. The Linde RoCaP promises a breakthrough in automating this task.
In March this year, the pre-development of the new robotics vehicle at Linde MH was completed. With the “Proof of Concept” the next milestone came to validate the vehicle’s market readiness in the operation of a customer under real conditions. At the internationally operating family-owned company Rossmann, the concept immediately attracted interest, according to Linde MH, because those responsible had long been
looking for a solution to relieve the staff, especially when picking the up-to-25-kilogram outer packaging.
In a first step, the company-specific requirements for deployment in the regional Burgwedel warehouse were formulated. This was followed by a several-week test deployment, after which the managers at Rossmann were positively surprised. “The Linde RoCaP has the potential to represent a significant advance for warehouse logistics. It can help counteract the existing skilled labor shortage and relieve employees from physically demanding tasks,” said Hendrik van Duuren, Managing Director of Rossmann Logistics. But for Linde MH the collaboration with Rossmann is also extremely valuable. “The joint further development of the vehicle with our customers ensures long-term market success,” affirms Frank Wiezorek, Senior Director IKA Solutions for Linde MH. The partnership with Rossmann focuses attention on the needs of the highly important segment of retail companies.
Four-axis robotic arm
The new Linde RoCaP is based on the automated high-lift pallet truck “Linde L-MATIC HD k2” with a load capacity of 1.6 tonnes and a travel speed of up to 7.2 km/h. The vehicle, navigation and safety technology, but also the battery compartment, as well as the
lifting frame and the automation boom, were taken over from the standard vehicle. New is the four-axis intelligent robot arm fixed to the fork carriage, with which the packages are picked and placed on the goods carrier. Specifically for use at Rossmann, the load-handling unit for roll containers was designed. It is carried by steel supports and also has a fold-out ramp attached to the vehicle. With this, the roll containers can be driven up and down, while the roll container is fixed in place during travel.
Its orders are received by the Linde RoCaP via a server interface from Rossmann's Warehouse Management System. From this, the RoCaP management system determines the next shelf position based on various parameters such as the size and weight of the order items and the optimal route. Upon arrival there, the robotic gripper arm goes into action. It features a 3D camera with Nvidia AI chips. In real time the camera detects the pallets, checks correctness, performs an optical measurement and defines the three-dimensional “working space.” Then follows a complex surface scan. It is determined where the packages lie precisely on the pallet and
which one is selected according to the defined operational requirements. Then the robot arm grabs the bundle by suction using a special vacuum technology and lifts it.
“The collaboration with Rossmann has shown how much potential is in the Linde RoCaP. We want to further harness this together with the company that operates almost 5,000 stores across Europe,” says Peter Krumbholz, Project Lead in Advanced Robotic Solutions, who oversees development for the Linde brand. Step by step, the labor-intensive manual picking in Rossmann's warehouse should be reduced—for greater safety, efficiency and throughput.
Modular approach
In doing so, the Linde RoCaP is designed so that it can also be adapted to other warehouses and distribution centers. “The concept is modular, meaning we can also equip other automated vehicle models with the gripper arm,” explains development engineer Krumbholz. Thanks to safety technology for vehicle and gripper arm, the Linde RoCaP can work side by side in the same aisle with human colleagues. “This advantage opens up great opportunities, because a mix of manual and automated or autonomous vehicles in warehousing and production will become increasingly common in the future,” says Frank Wiezorek.
