A SOA based context-aware order picking system for warehouses using Laser Range Finder and wearable computer

This paper describes the architectural details and advantages of a SOA based context-aware order picking system, which was developed within the framework of SiWear, a German national funded project by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) for the production plants cum warehouses of the automobile manufacturing industries. The pivotal components of order picking system are a wearable computer with Head Mounted Display and a Hokoyu URG-04LX Laser Range Finder, which are used for the context-awareness in terms of computing not only the user's hand/arm interaction with the shelf, but the correct box number from where the user should pick the desired number of items. The complete system was evaluated during an exhaustive user study and the results are intuitive enough to be leveraged and generalized for the production plants cum warehouses of any industry.