We use cookies to provide you with a better experience. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies in accordance with our Cookie Policy.
  • ::COVID-19 COVERAGE::
  • INDUSTRY PRESS ROOM
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT
  • MEDIA FILE
  • Create Account
  • Sign In
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
Free Newsletters
  • MAGAZINE
    • Current Issue
    • Archives
    • Digital Edition
    • Subscribe
    • Newsletters
    • Mobile Apps
  • TRANSPORTATION
  • MATERIAL HANDLING
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • LIFT TRUCKS
  • PODCAST ETC.
    • Podcast
    • Blogs
      • Analytics & Big Data
      • Best Practices
      • Dispatches
      • Empowering Your Performance Edge
      • Logistics Problem Solving
      • One-Off Sound Off
      • Public Sector Logistics
      • Two Sides of the Logistics Coin
      • Submit your blog post
    • Events
    • White Papers
    • Industry Press Room
      • Upload Your News
    • New Products
      • Upload Your Product News
    • Conference Guides
    • Conference Reports
    • Newsletters
    • Mobile Apps
  • DCV-TV
    • DCV-TV 1: News
    • DCV-TV 2: Case Studies
    • DCV-TV 3: Webcasts
    • DCV-TV 4: Viewer Contributed
    • DCV-TV 5: Solution Profiles
    • MODEX 2020
    • Upload Your Video
  • MAGAZINE
    • Current Issue
    • Archives
    • Digital Edition
    • Subscribe
    • Newsletters
    • Mobile Apps
  • TRANSPORTATION
  • MATERIAL HANDLING
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • LIFT TRUCKS
  • PODCAST ETC.
    • Podcast
    • Blogs
      • Analytics & Big Data
      • Best Practices
      • Dispatches
      • Empowering Your Performance Edge
      • Logistics Problem Solving
      • One-Off Sound Off
      • Public Sector Logistics
      • Two Sides of the Logistics Coin
      • Submit your blog post
    • Events
    • White Papers
    • Industry Press Room
      • Upload Your News
    • New Products
      • Upload Your Product News
    • Conference Guides
    • Conference Reports
    • Newsletters
    • Mobile Apps
  • DCV-TV
    • DCV-TV 1: News
    • DCV-TV 2: Case Studies
    • DCV-TV 3: Webcasts
    • DCV-TV 4: Viewer Contributed
    • DCV-TV 5: Solution Profiles
    • MODEX 2020
    • Upload Your Video
Home » FedEx taps latest tech to handle e-com surge

FedEx taps latest tech to handle e-com surge

Unique peak demands specialized tools like robotic arms, smart delivery vans, autonomous tugs, and sidewalk bots, carrier says.

fedex roxo bot
October 29, 2020
Ben Ames
No Comments

As parcel carriers throughout the industry wrestle with rising package volumes sparked by the triple-whammy impact of booming e-commerce, pandemic online shoppers, and the winter holiday peak, FedEx Corp. says it sees a solution in new technologies that have been pressed into service much sooner than most of the industry expected.

Under pressure from those market forces, online shopping is expected to reach record levels in the coming weeks, leading to a peak holiday season unlike any other, the Memphis-based firm said. Prior to the pandemic, FedEx had projected that the U.S. domestic economy would hit 100 million packages per day by calendar year 2026, but it now projects the market will hit that mark three years sooner than expected, cresting that level by 2023.

To handle the surge, FedEx says it has invested in advanced technologies and intelligent automation solutions, the company said in an “Innovation Showcase” webcast today. “We’ve been in peak since the beginning of the pandemic, and now we’re going to put peak on top of peak,” Rob Carter, FedEx’ executive vice president and CIO, said in the event.

In response, the company is leaning heavily on solutions like robotic sorting arms, mobile pick-by-light systems, autonomous DC tugs, last-mile delivery bots, and wireless package tags, the company’s executives said.

FedEx is currently using four robotic arms installed in March at its Memphis sorting hub, according to Aaron Prather, senior technical advisor at FedEx Express. Provided by the vendors PlusOne Robotics and Yaskawa Motoman, they currently run eight hours per day, sorting 1,200 to 1,300 packages per hour across a variety of parcels such as letters, small boxes, and “polymorphic” items that change shape as they move through the system.

Warehouse employees have named the arms Sue, Randall, Colin, and Bobby, but they will soon have to come up with additional monikers when FedEx expands the program after this winter’s peak season passes, Prather said.

One challenge in that process is handling e-commerce packages at the smallest and largest ends of the spectrum, so to handle big packages, FedEx deploys autonomous tugs from Vecna Robotics to move big boxes within the building, said Ted Dengel, managing director, operations technology and innovation, FedEx Ground. In the future, the company plans to extend that pattern outside the four walls of the DC and will pilot similar tugs for autonomous operations outdoors in the yard, moving trailers to and from dock doors, he said.

Once packages reach the loading dock, a different kind of technology takes over, according to Katherine King, a senior engineer with FedEx Express. The company’s “cargo recognition and organization system” (COROS), developed with Mercedes Benz, uses a combination of a camera and vision system, pick and put by light, and real time tracking. Mounted inside a FedEx delivery van, the COROS system guides workers on where to place packages inside the vehicle. First it automatically scans barcodes on packages, then identifies each package and determines its destination along a driver’s route, and flashes lights on specific shelves to guide the optimal loading pattern for boxes inside the van.

FedEx plans to expand the system soon as “COROS Scan Gate,” installed at dock locations to provide that same type of hands-free scanning and processing to speed up visibility and “to eliminate individual touchpoints at the extreme ends of the package delivery process,” King said.

At the final end of the delivery process, FedEx is now testing an autonomous last mile delivery vehicle known as “Roxo,” built on an iBot base from Deka Research, according to Brian Philips, president and CEO of FedEx Office. Each unit is a small, rolling bot that navigates city streets, carrying packages to homes and covering not just the last mile but the “last 50 feet,” as it climbs curbs, sidewalks, and front steps. Currently rolling down streets in Memphis and in Manchester, New Hampshire, the Roxo bots cruise a three to five-mile radius carrying up to 100 pounds. They are typically stationed at local spots like retailers, restaurants, and pharmacies, so they can be dispatched faster than a courier or crowdsourced carrier could respond, Philips said.

The company favors the new platform both for its speed of dispatch and for its efficiency, Carter said, commenting that “It makes more sense than using a 3,000-pound car driving around with a person inside of it, just to deliver a three-pound pizza.”

And the final step in FedEx’ application of new technologies during the e-commerce surge is its SenseAware platform, which uses physical tracking tags attached to parcels to create a “smart package” network with enhanced location and visibility for safety and security, Carter said. Each tag makes frequent transmissions using the Bluetooth Low Energy spectrum to communicate with WiFi access points, and the network will eventually connect to a new platform called FedEx Surround, which will emerge from a collaboration between FedEx and Microsoft Corp. announced in May.

In fact, one of the first major tests for that system may be coming soon, when many carriers are bracing for a surge in shipments to deliver a potential Covid-19 vaccine around the world. Carter says FedEx has already stockpiled “a huge stack” of those SenseAware tags for vaccine shipments, to increase safety and security for those valuable deliveries.

Editor's note: This article was revised on October 30 to clarify that the "Roxo" robot is still in testing phase, and is not fully deployed.

Last Mile Robotics Robotic Picking and Loading
KEYWORDS FedEx Plus One Robotics Vecna Robotics
  • Related Articles

    UPS to hire 100,000 workers to handle peak holiday volume surge

    3PLs turn to robots to handle holiday surge

    FedEx taps Colleran to run FedEx Express division

Benames
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.

Recent Articles by Ben Ames

China and U.S. face “reckoning” over trade disruptions in 2021

NRF: Covid pressures force merger of online and in-person shopping tech

MHS expands e-commerce fulfillment muscle with purchase of TGW unit

You must login or register in order to post a comment.

Report Abusive Comment

Most Popular Articles

  • Cold chain giant Lineage Logistics buys its own rail operator

  • For container lines and ports, what a difference a year makes

  • Outlook 2021: What’s in store for logistics supply chain?

  • Capacity challenges will continue in 2021

  • Shippers brace for tight capacity trend to continue in 2021

Now Playing on DCV-TV

2mw 01 11 21 thumb

Ocean Sector Shaping the Next Shipageddon

DCV-TV 4: Viewer Contributed
If you're a shipper, it's never good when a rep for an ocean carrier tells you, "You better sit down before you read this." We've been seeing astoundingly high increases in the ocean sector and they seem to have staying power. While the ocean carriers used blank sailings last year to tip the balance of supply and...

FEATURED WHITE PAPERS

  • Proven Benefits: A Compendium of Slotting Optimization Success Snapshots

  • Bridging Information Gaps in Dock and Yard Operations

  • How Intelligent Sensor Solutions Turn Data Into Action

  • Order picking Solutions: Understanding Your Options

View More

Subscribe to DC Velocity Magazine

GET YOUR FREE SUBSCRIPTION
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • NEWSLETTERS
  • ADVERTISING
  • CUSTOMER CARE
  • CONTACT
  • ABOUT
  • STAFF
  • PRIVACY POLICY

Copyright ©2021. All Rights ReservedDesign, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing