By Maria Kalamatas | May 12, 2025
Liège, BELGIUM
Inside a converted logistics hangar near Liège Airport, dozens of small robots move in quiet coordination. No shouts. No beeping forklifts. Just rhythm.
This is what a modern warehouse looks like when it’s built around flow, not volume.
Since the start of 2025, Belgium has become a testing ground for a new generation of collaborative logistics systems, driven by robotics, but guided by people. In the Liège Logistics Innovation Zone, a public-private pilot has paired robotics firms with regional operators to create something unusually seamless.
“We’re not automating to replace people,” says Anaëlle Dupont, operations lead at one of the participating fulfillment centers. “We’re doing it to make the work manageable, repeatable, and scalable.”
The setup is simple in theory. Modular bots retrieve totes, follow ceiling sensors, and deliver loads to human workers for sorting or final packing. Every movement is tracked. Every slowdown triggers a route recalibration.
But it’s the adaptability of the system that makes it stand out. When unexpected orders come in, algorithms shift the pick paths automatically. Night shifts use slower speed modes to reduce energy draw. Even light intensity changes depending on traffic zones inside the facility.
“It’s not just tech—it’s behavior,” Dupont says. “The system adapts to us, not the other way around.”
The results have been immediate. Error rates in packing have dropped by 35%. Worker fatigue reports—tracked anonymously via wearable badges—are down. And order cut-off times have moved back by nearly 90 minutes without extending staff hours.
The Belgian Ministry of Mobility and Employment is now reviewing early performance data, with the possibility of extending the model to other EU-funded hubs near Antwerp and Namur.
Online, a short video showing a synchronized 4 a.m. robot cycle in Liège—complete with soft lighting and rotating arms—has reached over 200,000 views on LinkedIn. A quiet operation, but one that’s making noise.
