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.
  • 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
    • Webcasts
    • Blogs
      • One-Off Sound Off
      • Global Logistics and Risk
      • Empowering Your Performance Edge
      • Analytics & Big Data
      • 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
    • Parcel Forum 2022
    • MODEX 2022
    • Upload Your Video
  • MAGAZINE
    • Current Issue
    • Archives
    • Digital Edition
    • Subscribe
    • Newsletters
    • Mobile Apps
  • TRANSPORTATION
  • MATERIAL HANDLING
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • LIFT TRUCKS
  • PODCAST ETC
    • Podcast
    • Webcasts
    • Blogs
      • One-Off Sound Off
      • Global Logistics and Risk
      • Empowering Your Performance Edge
      • Analytics & Big Data
      • 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
    • Parcel Forum 2022
    • MODEX 2022
    • Upload Your Video
Home » An inside look at the robotic revolution — and what it all means for you
ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION ROUNDTABLE, PART ONE

An inside look at the robotic revolution — and what it all means for you

How is technology helping fulfillment operations boost throughput and cope with the ongoing labor shortage? Experts share their insights in this special roundtable discussion.

DCV22_04_roundtable_robotics1.jpg
April 7, 2022
David Maloney
No Comments

Robotics and automation have never been hotter. And it’s not hard to see why. Squeezed by the ongoing e-commerce boom and a nationwide labor crunch, companies are finding they need these technologies to boost fulfillment speed and accuracy at a time when adding people is no longer an option.

To learn more about the current state of the robotics market as well as what lies ahead, DC Velocity Group Editorial Director David Maloney gathered experts from companies that participated in DC Velocity’s Robotics Forum at last month’s Modex show for a freewheeling discussion. Among the topics we address in Part One (Part Two will appear in our May issue) are recent advances in robotics technology, the different ways in which robots can help ease the DC labor crunch, and the future of robot design.

Roundtable Participants:

Jeff Christensen
Jeff Christensen, Vice President of Product, Seegrid
Dan Coote
Dan Coote, Global Product Manager, Locus Robotics
Mike Futch
Mike Futch, President and CEO, Tompkins Robotics
Matt Kohler
Matt Kohler, Director of Applications, Bastian Solutions
Romain Moulin
Romain Moulin, CEO, Exotec
Divya Prakash
Divya Prakash, Director, Business Consulting Industry 4.0, SICK
Kevin Reader
Kevin Reader, Vice President of Marketing, Knapp North America
Nicola Tomatis
Nicola Tomatis, CEO, BlueBotics

 

Q: What do you consider to be the most significant advances in robotics technology within the past five years?

 Jeff Christensen – Seegrid: The most important advancements today are in the development of intelligent autonomy technology. In order for autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and automation solutions to gain an extremely accurate understanding of their immediate surroundings, they need to see, collect, prioritize, and interpret a higher density of real-world live information. Any single sensor when used alone has its limitations. However, robotics companies that embrace sensor fusion will have solutions that offer an enhanced ability to perceive, plan, and control movement.

Matt Kohler – Bastian Solutions: Artificial intelligence (AI)-powered vision is a game-changer for robotics. Robots have always been great at handling repeatable tasks, which has led to their widespread adoption in manufacturing, but not so much in distribution, primarily due to the wide variety of products you see in a distribution center. AI-powered vision helps fleets of robots learn how to handle the complexities involved in handling tens of thousands of SKUs and the random nature in which they are presented to robots.

Nicola Tomatis – BlueBotics: One of the biggest changes in the last five years is that automated guided vehicles have become both the fastest-growing market and the largest market in service robotics. AGVs have overtaken both industrial robots and service robots working outside of industry. 

Mike Futch – Tompkins Robotics: Vision systems have made significant strides. Many picking software providers have made continual improvements in these systems. Two of the biggest hurdles that picking vision must overcome are the wide variety of items in warehouses and the unpredictability of what items are in a picking container. While human intervention is still required, picking vision has progressed to the point where the systems can economically replace or supplement manual labor in the warehouse environment.

Kevin Reader – Knapp: Developments in artificial intelligence and machine learning have rapidly enhanced the capabilities of the latest generation of more capable robots, enabling them to perform more complex order picking tasks. At a time when labor shortages have risen to an unprecedented level of concern to supply chain practitioners, this category of robotics is moving from prototype consideration to the “proven business case” category.

Divya Prakash – SICK: Simplification of user interfaces has opened up the robotics technology market to a much wider audience of end-users. Also, increased processing power enabled by GPUs (graphics processing units) and stronger CPUs (central processing units) better supports enhanced sensor capabilities.

Dan Coote – Locus Robotics: The most important advancement in robotics technology lies in how robots are able to navigate around a warehouse. The granularity of a map within a warehouse along with the bot’s ability to navigate in a complex and convoluted environment both safely and efficiently have progressed by leaps and bounds. It’s a combination of the physical hardware that goes into the bots (including LiDAR sensors) and enhancements in the back-end software tools. 

Romain Moulin – Exotec: Battery technologies have improved a lot in terms of efficiency, power density, and fast charging, which has allowed for new applications in mobile robotics.

Q: How can the increased use of robotics help distribution facilities cope with labor shortages?

Matt Kohler – Bastian Solutions: We hear about labor challenges all the time, and of course, implementing robotics in a distribution facility will help reduce labor requirements. But it also allows companies to re-allocate that labor to more value-add areas of their operations. I believe that is important because it will help those employees become more engaged and [will] hopefully increase retention.

Mike Futch – Tompkins Robotics: Robots have a bigger impact than just labor replacement. Consider that today’s workforce seeks out technology. They would much prefer to work in an environment where they can interact with high-tech solutions over traditional manual processes or even traditional automation. Further, facilities are continuing to see positive impact by adding in “gamification” to their operations. Robotic solutions greatly enhance this ability.  

Dan Coote – Locus Robotics: Robotics reduces the requirements for the number of warehouse workers and increases productivity among the workers that a warehouse does have. During peak season, there’s enormous demand for people, and the number of people available is dependent on where they’re located. To counteract this, bots—and specifically RaaS (robots as a service) bots—offer the option of short-term rentals, which cuts down on the number of people required and provides the ability to [meet] your peak demands by augmenting throughput with a combination of people and robots. Also, the induction, training, and speed-to-competency times decrease with robotics.

Q: How will artificial intelligence and machine learning affect future robotic designs?

Kevin Reader – Knapp: AI and machine learning solutions have the capability to impact a great many areas, from manufacturing through operations, delivery to customers, and beyond to our daily lives. But in a general context, there is consensus that the future of robotic design is not just driven by AI, but that “cloud is the enabler, data is the driver, and AI is the differentiator.” 

Matt Kohler – Bastian Solutions: The biggest impact will be in the sheer number of different robotic applications that those technologies enable. But from a robotic system design standpoint, I see the biggest impact being on “end of arm tooling” (EoAT) designs. AI will be able to evaluate products presented to the robot and determine how best to handle the product. AI can tell the robot to use only certain suction cups on a particular product surface or to only clamp a product in a certain location, or it may even tell the robot to swap out its current EoAT to use a different style of EoAT to handle a particular product.

Jeff Christensen – Seegrid: Robot design will benefit from AI and machine learning as the software will increasingly take on decision-making. Industrial automation solutions will move from robots that have to do many things to robots that will be more task-specific. This specialization, along with coordinated flow and interoperability across these disparate robot types, will enable process innovation and ongoing AI-driven optimization. Not only will movement be automated through the robots, but the optimization of flow and continual improvement will also be automated. 

Divya Prakash – SICK: As artificial intelligence and machine learning advance, they will allow robots to complete more complex tasks in a shorter time. In the context of increased sensor capabilities, such as being able to localize mixed parts in a bin, this will lead to more advanced robot capabilities to support the additional sensor capabilities. Seven axis arms may become more common. More advanced flexible tooling (soft grippers) will come to market. Ease of use will need to be maintained or improved.

Romain Moulin – Exotec: Artificial intelligence, coupled with new generations of sensors, allows robotics to tackle operations that once could only be done by human operators. Bin picking is still the most typical application.

Q: How has warehousing software evolved to make it easier to integrate the robots that are taking on a growing role in fulfillment operations?

Jeff Christensen – Seegrid: In the past, warehouse software interacted with automation such as AMRs and automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS), but had no visibility to the progress of work once it entered these systems. Tighter levels of integration through generic APIs (application programming interfaces) give today’s warehouse software much better visibility into automation and robotic technologies. This also allows for changes to either system without time-consuming and costly integration changes.

Kevin Reader – Knapp: As with most technologies these days, when it comes to warehouse and fulfillment operations, software is not stand-alone but rather, integrated across an array of areas—from overall inventory management to sequencing, order picking, device control, and daily operation. One of the most significant improvements is the development of control tower technologies that focus on warehouse and fulfillment center management and are designed to manage overall resources. Best-of-breed warehouse management systems are also being re-architected for the real-time nature of the latest technology, including goods-to-person systems, robotic palletizers, and fully robotic order picking. 

Nicola Tomatis – BlueBotics: Software has improved in two key areas: human usability and machine interfacing. Warehouse software today is easier to use, while at the same time, it needs to interface with more vehicles and systems than ever before. It has improved, but a lot remains to be done.

Q: What will robotics look like by the end of the decade?

Nicola Tomatis – BlueBotics: Two trends will define this decade in robotics: ease of use and interoperability. Robotic systems will be simpler to put in place and easier to use on a day-to-day basis. We will also see more and more different types of robots—and even brands of robots—working together as interoperability becomes the default. 

Romain Moulin – Exotec: More and more operations associated with picking, packing, and loading/unloading will be fully automated.

Divya Prakash – SICK: The merging of sensors and robotic systems into a more cohesive, pre-engineered application-based product will allow for more advanced applications to be solved. Rather than customizing automation to existing processes, existing processes must mold to the needs of the automation system. Some of the newer tasks being attempted with automation are complex enough that there may only be one or two ways to solve them. This contrasts with the past in robotics, where there were many ways to solve an application and customize to the user’s existing processes.

Dan Coote – Locus Robotics: By the end of the decade, it will be commonplace to have a multitude of bots performing various functions across the warehouse or [robots from] a multitude of vendors deployed within the warehouse.

 

Material Handling Technology Internal Movement Order Fulfillment & Packing Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) Goods-to-Person Systems Order Picking, Fulfillment & Delivery Robotic Picking and Loading Automatic Data Capture Supply Chain IT Warehouse IT Vision Systems Artificial Intelligence Cloud & SaaS Simulation/VR/Digital Twin Warehousing (WMS & WCS & WES)
KEYWORDS Bastian Solutions BlueBotics Exotec KNAPP Locus Robotics Seegrid SICK Tompkins Robotics
  • Related Articles

    An inside look at the robotic revolution — and what it all means for you (Part II)

    The Logistics Matters podcast: Dwight Klappich of Gartner on robotic goods-to-person systems | Season 2 Episode 6

    The Logistics Matters podcast: Kevin Paramore from Yale on technologies for social distancing in facilities | Season 1 Episode 35

Davidmaloney
David Maloney has been a journalist for more than 35 years and is currently the group editorial director for DC Velocity and Supply Chain Quarterly magazines. In this role, he is responsible for the editorial content of both brands of Agile Business Media. Dave joined DC Velocity in April of 2004. Prior to that, he was a senior editor for Modern Materials Handling magazine. Dave also has extensive experience as a broadcast journalist. Before writing for supply chain publications, he was a journalist, television producer and director in Pittsburgh. Dave combines a background of reporting on logistics with his video production experience to bring new opportunities to DC Velocity readers, including web videos highlighting top distribution and logistics facilities, webcasts and other cross-media projects. He continues to live and work in the Pittsburgh area.

Recent Articles by David Maloney

Is data fact?

InPerson interview: Rob McKeel of Fortna

In Person: Steve Beverly of Penske

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

Report Abusive Comment

Most Popular Articles

  • Schneider welcomes first battery-electric truck

  • Fred Smith is not worried about Amazon

  • RJW LOGISTICS GROUP EXPANDS RETAIL LOGISTICS OPERATION TO DALLAS

  • Maersk deploys indoor drones for warehouse inventory counts

  • Outlook 2023: What’s in store for logistics/supply chain?

Now Playing on DCV-TV

5afe63a5 7125 4318 b851 1e5738df1c91

Patterson Fan Co. | HVLS V-Series Ceiling Fan | Staging Area Air Movement

DCV-TV 4: Viewer Contributed
The Patterson V-Series is a high-volume, low-speed industrial ceiling fan that is designed to circulate a lot of air at a very low speed. These fans, ranging in diameters of 8’ all the way to 24’, are perfect for large, open spaces such as staging and shipping areas. One 24’ fan can generate a cooling effect of 6 –...

FEATURED WHITE PAPERS

  • The five best applications for robotic lift trucks in warehouse environments

  • Fulfillment Facility Improved Efficiencies by 4x

  • 3PLs: Complete Orders Faster with Flexible Automation

  • Reusable Packaging for the New Wave of Supply Chain Automation

View More

Subscribe to DC Velocity Magazine

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

Copyright ©2023. All Rights ReservedDesign, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing