Not only are mobile robots and automated trucks becoming smarter, but they’re also becoming more perceptive, safer, and more tightly connected, according to Alex Glasmacher, CEO of ELOKON. He shared his observations on industry trends with Automated Warehouse.
Founded in 1986, ELOKON provides automated safety and driver-assistance systems for forklifts, as well as fleet management tools. It claimed that they can enhance efficiency and productivity in intralogistics operations.
In June 2025, ELOKON announced its ELOshieldAI safety product, and in August, it launched its Product Configurator. The Tornesch, Germany-based company in November introduced support for ELOfusion Beta in ELOfleet 1.6.7, including stability and issue-resolution improvements.
ELOKON serves more than 4,250 customers around the world. It has dedicated customer service teams in the U.S., Germany, and Poland, serving clients in over 45 countries. ELOKON Inc.’s U.S. office is in Atlanta.
What major industry trends have you observed?
As we approach 2026, the material handling sector is undergoing a fundamental transformation. We’re seeing industrial environments previously led by siloed technologies turn into unified, autonomous, and data-driven operations.
The defining technological shift is the move from simple, single-source systems to complex, integrated intelligence. The dominant trend is sensor data fusion, which involves integrating data from sources like ultra-wideband (UWB), AI cameras, and RFID.
This creates fail-safe security and detection capabilities by cross-verifying risks, resulting in “safety-rated” systems. This fusion allows vehicles to act autonomously to prevent accidents, progressing beyond simple warnings to systems that automatically intervene — even slowing the truck — without requiring operator input.
The industry will also see explosive growth in the adoption of automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs).
For example, Interact Analysis projects that mobile robot revenues could increase at more than 20% annually between 2024 and 2030. This has accelerated the move toward managing mixed fleets — comprising manual forklifts and autonomous units and other material handling equipment — within a single, unified ecosystem.
This transition is essential as facilities aim to optimize operations across all their material flow assets, replacing the complexity of managing disparate, siloed software platforms.
How are ELOKON customer priorities shifting?
It’s all about simplicity or reducing complexity. As we’ve experienced, customers want to consolidate vendors, simplify deployment and gain predictive intelligence. They are increasingly asking to manage their entire fleet — forklifts, AGVs and AMRs — on one single platform to reduce vendor count and complexity.
Simultaneously, there is a strong demand for infrastructure-free, “RTLS-light” solutions. These real-time location systems (RTLS) do not require expensive, heavy facility infrastructure such as fixed anchors. As a result, this lowers the barrier to entry for precise indoor tracking.
On the maintenance front, managers are shifting away from calendar-based schedules, and instead demanding predictive analytics that use operational data to forecast failures. The result is a shift to usage-based planning cuts costs and downtime.
Save the date for the 2026 Robotics SummitWhat are other key challenges for your customers?
Despite the potential for modernization, we’re seeing customers face significant adoption hurdles. A primary concern is the “integration nightmare,” where purchasing managers and IT leaders fear proprietary systems that create isolated data silos and fail to connect seamlessly with existing WMS/ERP software.
Additionally, the high RTLS costs associated with required hardware make implementation cost-prohibitive for many small and medium-sized fleets.
Finally, operations often struggle with visibility gaps when managing diverse, mixed fleets from different vehicle OEMs, resulting in a lack of unified data across the entire operation.
What might be some defining innovations in 2026?
We expect that the maturity of digital twin technologies combined with infrastructure-free RTLS will be the most transformative innovation in 2026. This breakthrough will allow vehicles to truly map their environments in real time using on-board sensors.
They can then communicate that precise position to a digital twin of the warehouse — all without requiring external anchors. This technological convergence effectively democratizes advanced fleet analytics, which allows facilities of all sizes to access true visibility into their material flow and improve safety and efficiency at a fraction of the cost expected previously.
How do you see AI progressing in 2026?
We expect AI will continue to mature from a theoretical concept to a practical tool for data analysis and safety refinement. During 2026, the integration of large language models (LLMs) into fleet management dashboards should happen, which will allow managers to ask questions naturally such as, “Who was my most productive driver last week?”
This capability will clearly simplify data analysis for non-technical users. At the same time, AI cameras will increasingly pair with UWB through sensor fusion to eliminate false alarms.
AI vision can confirm the presence of a human — as opposed to an inanimate object — while UWB provides precise distance. This ensures safety interventions only occur when a genuine, verified risk exists.
How is ELOKON responding to these changes?
We’ve been focused on addressing the market’s demands for consolidation, flexibility and autonomy.
As an OEM-independent partner, ELOKON provides a single cloud platform to manage all vehicles in a mixed fleet, regardless of their make. This centralized approach addresses the visibility gaps inherent in multi-OEM operations.
We’re actively developing infrastructure-free tracking using vehicle-to-vehicle communication and UWB to reduce the high upfront capital costs associated with traditional RTLS. In addition, cloud-first deployments allow for faster and simpler rollouts across multiple sites without complex client-server architectures.
Our ELOfusion product is a good example of how this will work. It integrates safety and telematics into a single unit, eliminating hardware clutter and providing a holistic view of safety and productivity. By merging UWB proximity data with telematics, the system enables enhanced intelligence, such as using UWB for automatic speed zoning that triggers creep speed in high-risk areas without operator intervention.
ELOKON’s roadmap is focused on adapting to the autonomous future. This includes full AGV/AMR integration and compliance with interoperability standards like VDA 5050 to allow unified management of autonomous fleets.
We’re also committed to transitioning our systems to deliver autonomous braking and full safety-rated interventions, moving beyond simple warnings.
Also, through our ELOKON Ventures unit, we’re investing in startups that focus on teleoperation and mobile robotics, ensuring the company captures innovations like human-assisted autonomy.
