![]() ![]() While automated solutions are readily available around the “outskirts” of a facility, Brown says that things get increasingly difficult on the picking side. Robots have already proven themselves in applications such as palletizing or depalletizing single SKUs or layers and moving pallet loads. Modern recently spoke to a few industry experts to find what they, and the robots, have learned from an assortment of present-day robotic applications. ![]() This is where software comes in, granting the visibility to isolate order profiles and the flexibility to configure robots on the fly. Instead, it is preferable to slice each application into discrete pieces to find the best place for humans, robots and related systems. “If you look at the effortlessness with which a human can shuffle a few small items into a carton, robots are not even close.” “Don’t worry too much about the big, ultimate utopia of what it could be,” says Jim Lawton, chief marketing officer for Rethink Robotics. While possible, it is impractical to build a mobile robot with sufficient vision, dexterity and speed to go out into a warehouse and pick an order before packing it and delivering it to the dock. “They are more capable and flexible than anything-if you can minimize movement and fatigue to keep them focused on what they do best, which is dynamic manipulation.” “Humans are the most dynamic piece of equipment you could ever deploy,” says Adam Brown, manager of integrator partners at SSI Schaefer Systems International. While some solutions take humans entirely out of dull, dirty or dangerous tasks, the majority of robotic implementations are now focused not on replacing workers, but optimizing them. In an effort to overcome variables like SKU proliferation, labor shortages and smaller, more frequent orders, both the hardware and the software of these systems have come a long way in a short time. ![]() In addition to conventional robotic arms, solutions such as goods-to-person systems, automatic guided vehicles (AGV) and shuttle-based automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS) can often be bundled under the broad umbrella of robotics. In manufacturing applications, these robots have spent decades living up to the definition of the word robot as “a device that automatically performs complicated or repetitive tasks.” While there is no shortage of complication and repetition in warehousing and distribution, robotic automation has had to develop a whole new skill set to tackle the challenges of those unstructured environments. When visualizing industrial robots, the classic six-axis arm comes readily to mind. ![]()
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