How would it affect your business if you could reduce your warehouse workforce expenses by nearly half, add 24 x 7 shifts that significantly boost your production capacity and have access to troves of real-time data on all aspects of your operation? Warehouse robotics systems can help you redefine your business, lowering expenditures, boosting output and enhancing performance.
Types of Warehouse Robots
Although some types of warehouse robotics solutions have been around for many years, others are state-of-the-art engineering marvels that have the potential to disrupt the distribution and warehousing business as we know it. The primary categories of robotics system are:
Articulated Robotic Arms: Robotic arms with multiple joints can pick up and move products in a warehouse. They’re typically used for receiving functions, such as moving goods from pallets to racks, or in production scenarios, for picking and packing.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Unmanned aerial vehicles, more frequently referred to as drones, can deliver live inventory insight in a warehouse through the use of RFID technology.
Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (AS/RS) : AS/RS can retrieve goods from racks and return items to their correct storage slots. Examples of AS/RS solutions are horizontal or vertical carousel systems, aisle cranes and pallet shuttle systems.
Goods-to-Person technology (G2P): Instead of using humans to pick items from racks and bins, G2P systems use robots to dispense goods to picking stations, where workers are positioned to fill orders as products are delivered.
Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) : AGVs, such as self-driving forklifts, carts or pallet jacks, move goods between areas within a warehouse. Cart based AGVs are commonly called AGCs, or Automatic Guided Carts.
Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) : Like AGCs and AGVs, Autonomous Mobile Robots can transport goods across a warehouse autonomously. In contrast to AGVs and AGCs, which travel set paths often controlled by wire tracks or magnetic strips, AMRs make use of cameras, maps and sensors to negotiate frequently changing routes by interpreting their environment.
Applications For Warehouse Robots
Until recently, robotic applications in warehouses were confined to a small number of taks. As technology has improved, robotic capabilities have exploded and they can now be applied to nearly any requirement in a warehouse:
Loading and unloading: Although complete automation of loading and unloading trucks is not yet a realistic possibility, automated systems like conveyors and AGVs can be employed to augment your loading dock efficiency.
Palletizing and de-palletizing: Robotic systems are perfect for tedious, repetitive tasks like palletizing. These types of robots generally make use of a special End-of-Arm Tool to collect units and set them on a pallet. They’re often coupled with conveyors that supply items to the palletizing area.
Sorting: Robotic sortation systems must be able to select items, ID them and place them in an appropriate bin or storage slot. As items pass by on a conveyor, these robots use cameras to identify specific items and select them.
Picking: A considerable portion of the labor costs in a warehouse come from order picking activities, and robotic picking tehnologies have been around for decades to help tackle this problem. Nevertheless, contemporary robotic picking systems offer increased speed, better accuracy, enhanced efficiency and superior value versus systems of even a few years ago.
Packaging: Robotic solutions are well suited for repetitious and monotonous tasks like packaging. They may also be put to use for more complex jobs like dimensioning, weighing and cartonizing.
Transportation: Robotic transportation systems have wide-scale use in warehouses, from simple AGVs / AGCs to AMRs and conveyor systems that are integrated with AS/RS.
Storage: AS/RS systems include several categories of warehouse robots, including cranes, pallet shuttles and mini-load systems. AS/RS is also sometimes used together with mobile racking systems to make the most of space utilization.
Delivery: Large e-com businesses are conducting research on autonomous delivery drones, self-driving trucks and other emerging tech that will revolutionize home and warehouse delivery options in the near future.
Replenishment: Leveraging RFID to monitor inventory, warehouse drones can survey barcode labels in half the time of manual scanning and transmit stock data back to the WMS instantaneously.
Industrial Robotics Companies Near Me
If would would like to learn more about industrial robotic solutions for your warehouse, call an automation expert at Welch Equipment today!
