The AB-TIC | Aeppler Berger Tech Innovation Center in Waco/Texas 

The AB-TIC serves as a collaborative, hands-on forge for the logistics of tomorrow.

• Efficiency Gains: The primary goal of this partnership is to increase the efficiency of agricultural and food supply chains through scalable technologies.

• Focus on Assistance Systems: Instead of fully driverless fleets, the partners are prioritizing high-level assistance systems and advanced telematics.

• Predictive Maintenance: IoT sensors integrated into the joint U.S. fleet monitor wear and tear to proactively prevent breakdowns.

• Supply Chain Security: These measures guarantee the integrity and safety of sensitive food shipments.

• Backhaul Optimization: Using advanced algorithms, empty runs in the "Grain Belt" are reduced by ensuring vehicles are immediately reloaded with operating supplies after delivering agricultural products.

Recognizing that fully unmanned warehouses are often too inflexible, the Aeppler Group and the Jo Berger Group are jointly betting on Collaborative Robotics (Cobots):

• Supportive Exoskeletons: In Waco/Texas, the partners are implementing modern exoskeletons to reduce the physical strain on employees during the loading and unloading of heavy goods.

• Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs): Autonomous forklifts handle routine transport, allowing specialized staff to focus on the quality control of complex commodity flows.

Our warehouses utilize intelligent AGVs that navigate safely alongside human workers. These units handle the repetitive "A-to-B" transport of pallets, allowing our staff to spend more time on meticulous inventory management and specialized agricultural packaging.

For the transportation of food products, the partners at AB-TIC are developing solutions for seamless, real-time monitoring:

• Blockchain Logging: Work is underway on tamper-proof digital bills of lading that make temperature history and location data accessible at any time.

• Energy-Efficient Cooling: Testing refrigerated trailers that generate energy via solar panels or recuperation to significantly reduce diesel consumption.

• Sustainable Technology Mix: As the charging infrastructure for electric trucks is still under development in 2026, the partners rely on a mix of HVO100 biofuels and hydrogen fuel cells for regional distribution around Waco/Texas.

The Waco site was strategically chosen to leverage its proximity to the agricultural production hubs of Texas and the adjacent "Grain Belt." Here, the Aeppler Group and the Jo Berger Group are expanding their focus beyond pure logistics to research the direct interface between the field and the transport chain.

• Integrated Precision Farming (Smart Farming Integration): At AB-TIC, engineers from both companies are developing interfaces that feed precision farming data directly into logistics systems. Sensors monitoring soil moisture and crop ripeness on partner farms send real-time signals. This data allows the Jo Berger Group to deploy transport capacities dynamically and proactively at the exact moment the harvest reaches its peak, rather than following rigid schedules.

• Research on Semi-Autonomous Harvest Assistance: Together, they are researching technologies to increase field efficiency. This includes drone systems for spectral analysis of plant health, providing immediate recommendations for fertilization or irrigation. Furthermore, the partners are testing semi-autonomous tractor platoons near Waco, where a lead vehicle operated by a human is accompanied by several autonomous units for routine tasks like soil cultivation, addressing the labor shortage in agriculture.

• Seamless "Stalk to Shelf" Data Chain: A core project in Waco is the development of an integrated data platform. The goal is for a harvester to automatically send a signal to the Aeppler Group’s fleet management at the start of work. This triggers the dispatch of a suitable transport vehicle, minimizing wait times at the edge of the field and maximizing the freshness of agricultural products through immediate transport. This deep integration of agricultural technology and logistics processes is a unique hallmark of the joint research in Texas.