The vehicle, which is powered by autonomous software from Oxa, drove autonomously for 1300 kilometres over 14 days.
The project builds on DHL’s strategic partnership with Heathrow Airport and is designed to optimise airside operations through innovative and sustainable methods.
The autonomous technology aims to make inter-terminal baggage transfer services more efficient and provide a testbed for automating other airport services.
DHL’s baggage transfer service transfers over 60,000 passenger bags a month between terminals and the project is assessing how needs can be met autonomously.
Ahead of the deployment, the autonomous vehicle undertook a series of installation exercises at Heathrow, ensuring safety and enabling it to integrate into the airport environment.
The vehicle ran autonomously on the first day of the project without the need for specialist modifications or accommodations.
Its performance was optimised over the two week project, meeting all performance and safety benchmarks.
The project was conducted using a passenger vehicle to demonstrate the technology with the intention to switch to vehicles designed for baggage transfers.
Gavin Payne, Director of Engineering and Baggage at Heathrow Airport, said: “It was great to be able to support and join DHL, OXA and the Heathrow team in achieving the first safe and significant step towards this vision. Working within the Baggage Strategic Partnership in this way is critical to our Innovation journey and I am excited to see what comes next.”
Dan Peacock, Managing Director of DHL Supply Chain, said: “Our priority is to deliver an exceptional service to our customers that meets their unique needs, and this project supports Heathrow by modelling an innovative solution which could really help drive capacity safely and sustainably.”
Gavin Jackson, CEO of Oxa, added: “We are delighted to partner with DHL in order to support the use of autonomous vehicles within airside operations at Heathrow and around the world - working towards fully automated airside logistics at scale.”
