IFOY AWARD: The 2026 test results

At TEST CAMP INTRALOGISTICS, 17 devices and solutions nominated for the IFOY AWARD 2026 underwent the multi-stage IFOY Audit testing procedure—comprising the IFOY Innovation Check, IFOY Practical Test, and Jury Test—at the Westfalenhalle Dortmund in April. The IFOY organization has now released the results of the practical test and the scientific Innovation Check. The test list included:

Finalists 2026

• Crown: WJ 50
• Idealworks: Idealworks OS
• Jungheinrich: Automatisierte Gesamtlösung mit KI (Jungheinrich & Liebherr)
• KNAPP: KiSoft Delivery Solution
• Libiao Robotics: AirRob Pro
• Locus Robotics: LocusONE bei The Quality Group
• Mobotic: MoboDrive ST
• Nomagic: Shoebox Picker
• PureLoX SOLUTIONS: plx.wmx® – Cloud-native Warehouse Management Software
• SSI SCHÄFER: FastBots Solution
• STILL: Gabelstapler für Kleinwüchsige
• The Mobile Robot Company: J1600 self-driving pallet jack
• Wiltsche Fördersysteme: Destuff-it container unloading system

Finalists IFOY Start-up of the Year

• AI2Connect: AI2RampOptimizer
• Koiotech: DeepCargo
• Pyck: Open Source Toolkit for Warehousing Software
• Romb Technologies: Semantische visuelle Intelligenz für die Intralogistik

To assess the value of an innovation from a technological standpoint, a comparison of the technology against market standards is necessary. This part is handled by the scientific IFOY Innovation Check, conducted by the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics (IML) in Dortmund, the Chair of Technical Logistics at TU Dresden, the Chair of Materials Handling, Material Flow, Logistics at the Technical University of Munich, and the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA in Stuttgart.

The science team evaluates the finalists with regard to degree of innovation, customer benefit, market relevance, and functionality.

The innovations emphasized to varying degrees by the manufacturers in their documentation and presentations are reviewed and verified on-site in the test hall through visual inspections and a functional test. In a technology comparison, the scientists also assess whether a given solution represents an innovative refinement, a new combination of existing elements, or a genuine innovation.

The practice-oriented IFOY Test consists of a survey combined with a functional test. In it, the industrial trucks undergo individually tailored driving or functional tests, including the IFOY test protocol comprising around 80 criteria, which determines factors such as cost-effectiveness and energy efficiency, sustainability, safety, and ergonomics of the devices, likewise benchmarked against competing products.

All test results are available at www.ifoy.org in the new IFOY Finalists database. It consolidates all tests and Innovation Checks from the past 14 years and makes them searchable by company, year, and category. The test results are available for free reprint.