Ben Ames has spent 20 years as a journalist since starting out as a daily newspaper reporter in Pennsylvania in 1995. From 1999 forward, he has focused on business and technology reporting for a number of trade journals, beginning when he joined Design News and Modern Materials Handling magazines. Ames is author of the trail guide "Hiking Massachusetts" and is a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism.
Canadian robot manufacturer Clearpath Robotics Inc. today rolled out a miniaturized model of its self-driving vehicle used in factories and warehouses, another step in its strategy to provide fulfillment equipment that can keep up with the rising demands of e-commerce.
While Clearpath's original product, the Otto 1500, is built to carry fully loaded pallets of goods, the new Otto 100 is designed to carry smaller cases, totes, and "each" loads, company CEO Matt Rendall said in a phone interview.
Working together in collaborative fleets, the two types of autonomous transporters could function alongside human pickers in congested industrial environments such as distribution, e-commerce, and manufacturing, he said.
Named for its maximum payload in kilograms, the Otto 100 can carry loads up to 220 pounds at speeds up to 4.5 mph. The pallet-shaped Otto is similar in appearance to Amazon Robotics' Kiva robot, but follows a material handling strategy of "robot plus person" as opposed to "goods to person," he said.
"Kiva Systems were way ahead of their time and took the fulfillment industry by storm," Rendall said. "They proved the technology was not only ready, but could deliver (return on investment). Then overnight, Amazon took them off the market."
E-commerce colossus Amazon acquired the Massachusetts-based Kiva in 2012 for $775 million, ceased selling its robotic solutions to other companies, and renamed it Amazon Robotics.
The Kitchener, Ont.-based Clearpath stepped into that void to meet the latent demand for warehouse automation by offering a variation on Kiva's approach. Clearpath unveiled its first platform, the larger Otto 1500, in September 2015. With a top payload of 3,300 pounds and the same top speed as its little brother, that vehicle is designed for heavy-load material transport and is currently being used in a warehouse pilot program by General Electric, Clearpath says.
In Clearpath's view, a single DC might use both its robot models in concert, deploying a fleet of Otto 1500s to carry palletized goods from a receiving dock to a depalletizer, then handing off cases and totes to a flock of smaller Otto 100s.
In another approach, a warehouse could add only the Otto 100s, using them to complement its traditional automation systems. Rendall compares this strategy to a city metro system with both a mass transit subway and a taxicab fleet for personal trips. In the same fashion, warehouses rely on their miles of fixed conveyor lines to operate like a train network for bulk transportation, but they also need employees—or robots—to move individual items to their final destinations.
Under the hood, both robot models use Clearpath's self-driving operating system to steer along optimal paths and avoid collisions. They integrate with a facility's enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform through the company's enterprise fleet management system, which also manages their battery recharging schedules. The robots sense their surroundings using laser-based "lidar" scanning to map a building floor, then use onboard intelligence and cloud connectivity to operate in collaborative fleets.
Collaboration is key to the Clearpath strategy, which envisions warehouse employees working alongside the Otto platforms, not being replaced by them. "Just as the Google self-driving car needs to safely operate near pedestrians, Otto needs to safely operate near laborers, inside a warehouse aisle or a pick area," Rendall said.
Robot fleets can deliver their highest return by taking over repetitive tasks and leaving warehouse workers to perform jobs at which humans excel, such as picking specific parts from a crowded box or shelf, which requires a high level of dexterity,he said.
Supply chain planning (SCP) leaders working on transformation efforts are focused on two major high-impact technology trends, including composite AI and supply chain data governance, according to a study from Gartner, Inc.
"SCP leaders are in the process of developing transformation roadmaps that will prioritize delivering on advanced decision intelligence and automated decision making," Eva Dawkins, Director Analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, said in a release. "Composite AI, which is the combined application of different AI techniques to improve learning efficiency, will drive the optimization and automation of many planning activities at scale, while supply chain data governance is the foundational key for digital transformation.”
Their pursuit of those roadmaps is often complicated by frequent disruptions and the rapid pace of technological innovation. But Gartner says those leaders can accelerate the realized value of technology investments by facilitating a shift from IT-led to business-led digital leadership, with SCP leaders taking ownership of multidisciplinary teams to advance business operations, channels and products.
“A sound data governance strategy supports advanced technologies, such as composite AI, while also facilitating collaboration throughout the supply chain technology ecosystem,” said Dawkins. “Without attention to data governance, SCP leaders will likely struggle to achieve their expected ROI on key technology investments.”
The British logistics robot vendor Dexory this week said it has raised $80 million in venture funding to support an expansion of its artificial intelligence (AI) powered features, grow its global team, and accelerate the deployment of its autonomous robots.
A “significant focus” continues to be on expanding across the U.S. market, where Dexory is live with customers in seven states and last month opened a U.S. headquarters in Nashville. The Series B will also enhance development and production facilities at its UK headquarters, the firm said.
The “series B” funding round was led by DTCP, with participation from Latitude Ventures, Wave-X and Bootstrap Europe, along with existing investors Atomico, Lakestar, Capnamic, and several angels from the logistics industry. With the close of the round, Dexory has now raised $120 million over the past three years.
Dexory says its product, DexoryView, provides real-time visibility across warehouses of any size through its autonomous mobile robots and AI. The rolling bots use sensor and image data and continuous data collection to perform rapid warehouse scans and create digital twins of warehouse spaces, allowing for optimized performance and future scenario simulations.
Originally announced in September, the move will allow Deutsche Bahn to “fully focus on restructuring the rail infrastructure in Germany and providing climate-friendly passenger and freight transport operations in Germany and Europe,” Werner Gatzer, Chairman of the DB Supervisory Board, said in a release.
For its purchase price, DSV gains an organization with around 72,700 employees at over 1,850 locations. The new owner says it plans to investment around one billion euros in coming years to promote additional growth in German operations. Together, DSV and Schenker will have a combined workforce of approximately 147,000 employees in more than 90 countries, earning pro forma revenue of approximately $43.3 billion (based on 2023 numbers), DSV said.
After removing that unit, Deutsche Bahn retains its core business called the “Systemverbund Bahn,” which includes passenger transport activities in Germany, rail freight activities, operational service units, and railroad infrastructure companies. The DB Group, headquartered in Berlin, employs around 340,000 people.
“We have set clear goals to structurally modernize Deutsche Bahn in the areas of infrastructure, operations and profitability and focus on the core business. The proceeds from the sale will significantly reduce DB’s debt and thus make an important contribution to the financial stability of the DB Group. At the same time, DB Schenker will gain a strong strategic owner in DSV,” Deutsche Bahn CEO Richard Lutz said in a release.
Transportation industry veteran Anne Reinke will become president & CEO of trade group the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) at the end of the year, stepping into the position from her previous post leading third party logistics (3PL) trade group the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), both organizations said today.
Meanwhile, TIA today announced that insider Christopher Burroughs would fill Reinke’s shoes as president & CEO. Burroughs has been with TIA for 13 years, most recently as its vice president of Government Affairs for the past six years, during which time he oversaw all legislative and regulatory efforts before Congress and the federal agencies.
Before her four years leading TIA, Reinke spent two years as Deputy Assistant Secretary with the U.S. Department of Transportation and 16 years with CSX Corporation.
Serious inland flooding and widespread power outages are likely to sweep across Florida and other Southeast states in coming days with the arrival of Hurricane Helene, which is now predicted to make landfall Thursday evening along Florida’s northwest coast as a major hurricane, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
While the most catastrophic landfall impact is expected in the sparsely-population Big Bend area of Florida, it’s not only sea-front cities that are at risk. Since Helene is an “unusually large storm,” its flooding, rainfall, and high winds won’t be limited only to the Gulf Coast, but are expected to travel hundreds of miles inland, the weather service said. Heavy rainfall is expected to begin in the region even before the storm comes ashore, and the wet conditions will continue to move northward into the southern Appalachians region through Friday, dumping storm total rainfall amounts of up to 18 inches. Specifically, the major flood risk includes the urban areas around Tallahassee, metro Atlanta, and western North Carolina.
In addition to its human toll, the storm could exert serious business impacts, according to the supply chain mapping and monitoring firm Resilinc. Those will be largely triggered by significant flooding, which could halt oil operations, force mandatory evacuations, restrict ports, and disrupt air traffic.
While the storm’s track is currently forecast to miss the critical ports of Miami and New Orleans, it could still hurt operations throughout the Southeast agricultural belt, which produces products like soybeans, cotton, peanuts, corn, and tobacco, according to Everstream Analytics.
That widespread footprint could also hinder supply chain and logistics flows along stretches of interstate highways I-10 and I-75 and on regional rail lines operated by Norfolk Southern and CSX. And Hurricane Helene could also likely impact business operations by unleashing power outages, deep flooding, and wind damage in northern Florida portions of Georgia, Everstream Analytics said.
Before the storm had even touched Florida soil, recovery efforts were already being launched by humanitarian aid group the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN). In a statement on Wednesday, the group said it is urging residents in the storm's path across the Southeast to heed evacuation notices and safety advisories, and reminding members of the logistics community that their post-storm help could be needed soon. The group will continue to update its Disaster Micro-Site with Hurricane Helene resources and with requests for donated logistics assistance, most of which will start arriving within 24 to 72 hours after the storm’s initial landfall, ALAN said.