WALLY, affordable intralogistics automation for industrial SMEs

WALLY is an innovation project by Batura, funded by SPRI’s Fast Track Innobideak 2025 programme. Its goal is to validate, in a real industrial environment, a semi-automatic order picking and sorting system based on Edge Computing, so that industrial SMEs can automate their intralogistics without the hardware and software investment that current solutions require.

General information

• Programme: Fast Track Innobideak 2025 (SPRI – Basque Government)
• Years: 2025-2026
• Beneficiary: Batura Mobile Solutions
• External collaboration: ARITU, Pick To Light Systems and IFAM
• Starting point: system at TRL 6, validated in a relevant environment

The challenge: automating intralogistics without major investment

Intralogistics covers every internal movement of goods within a company, from the moment material enters the warehouse until it leaves for the customer. It is one of the areas where efficiency is most easily gained or lost, and the growth of e-commerce and internationalisation has increased the pressure to work faster, with fewer errors and a lower environmental impact.

Automation technologies exist, but they are designed for large logistics centres. Many industrial SMEs, for example in machine tools or retail distribution, have limited resources and technological infrastructure and cannot take on that investment. As a result, they keep preparing orders with manual methods that are slower and more prone to errors.

Batura’s solution: an Android app and Edge Computing for the warehouse

Batura has developed a semi-automatic order picking and sorting system based on Edge Computing. It builds on Pick Gently, our cart picking solution, and adds put-to-wall order sorting.

With Edge Computing, data is processed on the devices at the workstation rather than on central servers. This reduces the investment in hardware and replaces the software these systems have traditionally needed, so the system can be adapted to very different industrial settings.

How operators work with the app

The Android app is the tool operators use to interact with the whole system. It guides them in real time through both stages of the process:

1. Item picking: the app shows which items to pick, from which location and in what quantity for each order, following the most efficient route through the warehouse.
2. Verification: each item is validated by scanning its barcode or QR code, to confirm it is the right one before continuing.
3. Sorting by order: in the sorting area, light indicators show which slot each item goes into, until every order is complete.
4. Real-time tracking: the app instantly updates the status of each order: what is complete, what is missing and whether there are any issues.

Because Edge Computing processes data on the device itself, the app responds without depending on a central server.

The interface is designed so that anyone can use it from day one, with almost no training, and it meets the accessibility criteria of the UNE-EN 301549 standard.

The system has already reached a high level of technological maturity and has been validated in a relevant environment, but it still has some way to go before reaching the market. WALLY adds new features and tests it in a real operational environment, IFAM’s warehouses, as the step prior to its commercial launch.

Subsidized by SPRI