Subscribe

Tag: AMR

iFollow showcases slimline AMRs at IMHX

Posted on by David Priestman

iFollow will be showcasing Its premium, slimline autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) on the Stow stands 5B105 and 5B110 at IMHX 2022, which takes place on 6-8 September 2022 at the NEC, Birmingham. Frazer Watson, UK / Ireland Country Manager at iFollow, said: “As the logistics solutions and intralogistics technology event of the year, IMHX offers the perfect platform to promote the transformative benefits that mobile robots can bring to warehouses and fulfilment centres.”

The iFollow team invites visitors to the stands to discuss the latest agile automated intralogistics techniques involving AMRs. Suited to a broad range of applications, even in cold storage, iFollow’s mobile robots can assist order picking operations in sectors such as grocery, manufacturing and logistics. They have the flexibility to transport different storage units such as pallets, trolleys and roll cages – with a standout feature of being able to transport two roll cages at once in cold stores and ambient warehouses, making them an ideal productivity boosting solution for grocery logistics.

In addition, the robots can operate in temperatures from -25°C to +40°C without degradation of battery life, and their robust build happily withstands travel on rough floors. Being just 17cm high – approximately half as tall as of other AMRs – gives the iFollow robot a further advantage in reducing overall height when carrying roll cages.

Earlier this year, stow Group’s warehouse automation business unit acquired a majority stake in iFollow, which designs and manufactures 100% of its high quality AMRs in France.

 

Seed Financing Secured for AMR Warehouse Platform

Posted on by David Priestman

BotsAndUs, a cutting-edge intelligence and robotics company has secured $13m in seed funding to expand its logistics-disrupting solution globally. Lakestar leads the round, with participation from Maersk Growth, Kindred Capital, and Capnamic.

Efficient warehousing is a crucial part of global supply chains. The rapid increase in demand for near-instantaneous storage, dispatch, and delivery of goods is placing enormous time and cost pressures on companies, who now need to rethink and enhance their logistics and storage operations. 69% of companies are currently looking to improve their inventory control and lower costs.
BotsAndUs collects real-time insights using fully autonomous, mobile robots to quickly process pallets at every stage in their journey throughout a warehouse. Triggered by the arrival of goods, their robots capture the volume and condition as they enter and leave the warehouse. The same robots scan goods on shelves and record their location and quantity. Robots operate without human intervention and do not require additional investments in infrastructure. These robots will save time by eliminating manual dimensioning and stock checking; ultimately allowing managers to have full and real-time visibility of their operations from the comfort of their desks.

“BotsAndUs is already paving the way for artificial intelligence and robotics to completely transform logistics. Our integrated AI and robotics platform is helping companies boost their performance and unlock their full potential. We’re confident we can make our vision a reality: transforming logistics on a global scale with real time data to eliminate errors and enhance performance across all steps” says Co-founder and CEO, Andrei Danescu.

BotsAndUs already won key customers across various industries. In addition to Maersk and Huboo, BotsAndUs works with Menzies Aviation, the air cargo company that services more than 200 airport locations, – including at Europe’s largest airport, London Heathrow. The company recently entered into a partnership with Maersk – the global integrator of container logistics, to collaborate with Maersk’s warehousing and contract logistics division, initially in one of their warehouses, exploring automating inventory management and acceptance processes, and with time to improve customers’ visibility and access to inventory across facilities. With the fresh capital, BotsAndUs is targeting markets including Germany, France, Nordics, USA, and Canada and driving product development.

“More than 80% of warehouses have no automation at all. With warehouses expected to grow by 50% by 2025 and labour shortages of over 30%, automation clearly holds the key to ensuring logistics operations are as optimised as possible. Logistics is an industry that always faced margin pressures and little means to invest into a digital infrastructure. BotsAndUs real-time data capture abilities create this infrastructure and the basis for long term automation of warehousing operations. We’re delighted to join the stellar team on their journey to transform logistics and enable companies to perform at their best,” says Lakestar Partner Christoph Schuh.

“Maersk Growth’s investment in BotsAndUs is a great reflection of how we in Maersk are working towards improving end-to-end customer visibility and access to inventory across our warehouses, ultimately offering our customers fulfilment tailored in real time and in response to changing demands,” says Ingrid Ebner, Global Head of Contract Logistics, Maersk. “We are delighted to back such a talented and inspiring team. BotsAndUs are tackling big opportunities in global logistics. Most warehouses have limited or no automation, and could benefit significantly from exploring this space. Many firms currently stretch the capacity of people and process in response to business challenges. BotsAndUs provides an easy on-ramp for warehouses to explore automation, enrich data and enable intelligent optimisation to utilise untapped capabilities from existing assets and teams,” says Oliver Finch, Investment Partner, Maersk Growth.

SCIO Automation Launches Robotics Product Brand

Posted on by David Priestman

Decades of experience in intralogistics automation and expertise in AMR development have come together in the product brand 4am robotics, uniting the AMR segments of SCIO’s corporate brands Schiller Automatisierungstechnik GmbH and Mojin Robotics GmbH.

In 2016, the autonomous tugger train from Schiller Automatisierungstechnik was originally developed as a pilot project for an automotive client – it’s been used successfully for years, and it’s constantly being developed further and improved. When Mojin Robotics joined SCIO Automation in 2020, the team brought its Autonomous Mobile Cobot (AMC) along with it. From that moment on, SCIO’s corporate brands Schiller Automatisierungstechnik and Mojin Robotics have been working together on their AMR innovations – an autonomous high-lift truck and forklift are currently in the development phase.

The international automation platform demonstrated the vast potential of direct interaction between Mojin’s AMC and Schiller’s AMR fleet to a select group of clients at its first groupwide intralogistics event last year.

“From the word go, we’ve been wanting to expand our AMR segment and offer our clients and partners a wide product range. With the joint brand name 4am robotics we will appear as a homogeneous and innovative brand in the future.” said Peter Stoiber, AMR Segment Manager.

AMRs: the safe choice for the warehouse

Posted on by David Priestman

Frazer Watson, UK–Ireland Country Manager at AMR designer and manufacturer iFollow, examines how AMRs can contribute to improving safety in increasingly busy warehouses.
The good news is that the UK is one of the safest countries in Europe in which to work, with consistently one of the lowest rates of fatal injuries across all industries compared to other large European economies. It’s a similar story for work related injuries and health problems.

Even better news would be to continue minimising the accidents that still do occur in the warehouse. According to HSE’s ‘Transportation and Storage Statistics in Great Britain’, slips, trips or falls on the same level (45%) were the most common of the main kinds of accidents in transportation and storage for the latest three years (2018/19-2020/21), and 6% were from being struck by a moving vehicle. There were 10 fatal injuries in 2020/21 – a period that of course includes the Covid pandemic – which compares with the annual average number of 13 fatalities for 2016/17-2020/21. The fatal injury rate (0.85 per 100,000 workers) is around twice the all industry rate (0.42 per 100,000 workers). Looking at non-fatal injuries around 2.1% of workers in Transportation and Storage sustained a workplace injury. This is significantly higher statistically than that for workers across all industries (1.8%).

Technology has always provided innovative safety solutions, but in the form of Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs), it can have a massive impact by changing fundamentally how work is carried out in the warehouse – particularly by removing the need for people walking in areas where fast moving heavy vehicles, such as forklift trucks, are travelling.

The pressure to fulfil orders with shorter lead times is increasing, upping the activity within warehouses and distribution centres, particularly in sectors such as grocery, which deal in large amount of fast moving items. A distribution centre typically operates with a mixed fleet of counterbalance, narrow aisle and order picking trucks rushing around it. Racking aisles are one area where these vehicles might encounter pedestrian pickers. However the busiest accident risk zones are the areas where staff manually carry or push a cart or pedestrian truck between Goods In, pick zones, packaging desks and marshalling areas. Even with careful planning of pedestrian routes, close proximity between these large machines and people – and therefore risk of accidents – is hard to avoid. All it takes is a moment of hesitation or distraction.

Using AMRs to automate the transportation of goods, roll cages, pallets and other storage units between these areas in a warehouse is a highly effective method for separating people from vehicle traffic to avoid the risk of collisions. Where cohabitation of mobile robots and humans does occur, such as to support order picking in an aisle, an AMR equipped with autonomous navigation will provide far superior levels of safety. The faster the robot moves in one direction, the further the area of detection stretches, and the slightest obstacle entering the robot’s vicinity will trigger an emergency stop.

Equipped with security cameras and LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) units, AMRs can travel on complex routes that are much narrower than alternatives such as AGVs can travel within, and they have a perfect perception of the environment around them. An iFollow robot, for example, analyses its situation in real time to avoid obstacles or even overtake slower vehicles. Two 3D cameras (front and back) give a three-dimensional perception with a wide viewing angle and volumetric detection of objects even at long distances. Taking in the environment around them, the safety LIDARs complement each other perfectly and play an essential role in the 360° object detection of the vehicle. When the robot works in cooperation with humans, navigation modes can take into account the proximity of the user, for example during order preparation. A further safety design element comes in the form of an AMR that is 100% symmetrical and can navigate in both directions, which will avoid time-consuming and turning manoeuvres.

Of course, using AMRs to transport goods across busy warehouse traffic routes not only keeps workers safely distant from busy warehouse traffic, it also provides an aid to reduce strain related injuries. Some 1.6% of workers in warehousing suffer from work-related musculoskeletal disorders (new or long-standing cases), which is statistically higher than that for workers across all industries (1.2%). Pushing roll cages or manually carrying items around a warehouse will increase the risk of these injuries. With an AMR carrying the load, however, staff are free to concentrate on less physically strenuous tasks such as picking orders.

As the miles transported and loads carried racks up on an individual mobile robot, its build will ensure it maintains its performance and reliability and therefore its safe operation. This is where robust build and quality engineering will set a range of robots apart, as is the case with iFollow AMRs.

Automated technology keeps robots under control so they do not become the cause of any collisions or stop where they are not supposed to thus causing a hazard. AMRs will follow instructions from a Warehouse Management System (WMS) via robot fleet management software, which should be capable of being implemented on any type of computer. A web application will allow managers to check in on the AMR via a smartphone. With a few clicks, locations can be modified, missions can be assigned to the robots and tasks scheduled.

This is the kind of technology iFollow builds into its range of AMRs which are geared to improve productivity in grocery, industrial, pharmaceutical, chemical, cosmetic, logistics and mass distribution sectors, which all operate busy, fast moving warehouses. The company made the strategic choice to design and manufacture its own autonomous mobile robots – which are all guaranteed – and fully develops its own navigation and fleet management algorithms. Being designed for intense and repeated use over time, iFollow’s AMRs not only deliver great value and productivity, they also ensure safe operation.

Stow Robotics acquires iFollow

Posted on by David Priestman

Stow Robotics, stow Group’s warehouse automation business unit, has acquired a majority stake in iFollow SAS, a collaborative autonomous mobile robot company.

Reinforcing stow’s commitment to warehouse automation, stow Robotics was launched in September 2021, regrouping all existing automated solutions for pallets and totes and related services and teams. Through this newly created and dedicated business unit, stow is building a platform of scalable and innovative automated solutions and continues to invest in ground-breaking technologies such as iFollow’s robot and software offering.

iFollow, founded in March 2017, is a Paris-based robotics company developing and commercialising market-leading autonomous mobile robots and a proprietary software suite. Its present fleet of cutting-edge AMRs and software are suited for a large range of use-cases, such as collaborative picking and in-and-outbound transport. iFollow is currently accelerating the commercialisation and deployment of its AMRs, having already deployed its technology in a wide variety of applications across different industries and building on a promising pipeline.

The acquisition of iFollow is backed by funds managed by Blackstone, stow Group’s majority shareholder. The partnership with iFollow’s management, who remain on board, strengthens and builds on stow Robotics’ clear strategy and leading position in the global warehouse automation market.

Jos De Vuyst, CEO of stow Group, said: “We are thrilled to welcome iFollow to stow Robotics and have been impressed by the entire iFollow team. This is another important milestone for stow Robotics, adding a company that fits perfectly within our portfolio of scalable automation solutions. We truly believe this partnership will unlock significant synergies with our Atlas 2D pallet solution, as well as meaningfully accelerate iFollow’s growth through our commercial network. iFollow shares in our vision for the future and provides the perfect platform for further AMR-based solutions.”

Vincent Jacquemart, co-founder and CEO of iFollow, said: “We are delighted to join forces with stow Robotics, a leader in warehouse automation. We firmly believe this is the right partnership to start iFollow’s next phase of long-term growth, with a reliable, global partner. In addition to its commercial traction, technology-driven approach, and its advanced industrial base, we share with stow the same conviction on the importance of technology in warehouse automation and the future of intralogistics. It’s a very exciting moment for our team, which is looking forward to shaping the industry even further.”

 

Clever software drives AMR efficiency

Posted on by David Priestman

In production environments, intralogistics activities performed by humans are often non-value adding according to Lean methodology. Implementing autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) to perform these warehouse transport activities is a way to reduce those costs. But to let those AMRs work as efficiently as possible, clever software is a must.

MoviĜo Robotics says it is an AMR manufacturer that constantly aims to maximise the hourly performance of its AMRs. The Dutch company constantly looks for ways to improve the efficiency of the fleet with clever innovations, and has recently launched three new ones.

The first is smart lifting technology. This enables its Ŝharko10 to adapt its lift height depending on the payload characteristics, so it always lifts the payload with the minimal amount of time needed. A normal lift has two positions: up and down. MoviĜo Robotics’ technology made the lifting height variable, so every lift movement that does not require to go to its maximum height saves time. The lift technology also adapts its riding height on the move. With the repetitive work of AMR’s, this can create several minutes of extra capacity per vehicle per hour.

One of the main areas that MoviĜo Robotics aims to improve constantly is its order management software. Paul Van der Hulst, Co-Owner & Managing Director of MoviĜo Robotics bv, says: “Our solutions focus primarily on production companies, and their processes can be very complex. This requires clever order management software to ensure all transports are done efficiently and more importantly: on time.

“Costs of a production line standstill due to lack of raw materials can be significant. We found standard order management software inadequate and not flexible enough.”

Software Director Ronald de Koning elaborates: “Our software can assign tasks based on multiple priorities, due time, time limits, time windows, actual location of the AMR compared to others, and upcoming tasks. Order lines are managed real-time. Imagine a Ŝharko driving from the warehouse to a production line to pick-up finished goods. Halfway through its mission, an order for raw materials for the same production line is created. We can interrupt the original mission and switch to the high-priority one. So, it first collects raw materials, brings it to the production line and then collects the finished goods. So, we constantly check to optimise the orders, to create optimal performance.”

But MoviĜo doesn’t only look for ways to optimise the efficiency of the vehicle, but also reduce manual input. One way to do this is through vision.

“Our camera software manages buffer locations and communicates an available location to the Ŝharko,” adds de Koning. “This enables locations to be used by AMRs and humans simultaneously without manual location management.”

But MoviĜo’s Intelligent Camera Kit can do more clever things. It detects a pallet on a certain location and automatically generates an order. Its latest update enables the system to detect if a pallet is empty and automatically generates a replenishment order.

Van der Hulst concludes: “I hate it when vehicles drive empty, because you purchase an AMR to do as much transports as possible. Even worse are Ŝharko that stand still, for example when there is no night shift. At one customer that doesn’t work at night, the Ŝharko vacuums their production facility at night. If it adds to the return on investment, we have no problem with that.”

 

AMR choice: the difference is quality

Posted on by David Priestman

Frazer Watson, UK – Ireland Country Manager at AMR designer and manufacturer iFollow, examines the quality differentiator when it comes to choosing an Autonomous Mobile Robot solution.

Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) are rapidly building a reputation for being a smart, flexible and productive intralogistics transport solution. At a time of increasingly scarce labour, AMRs can be deployed to work in cooperation with staff, enabling manufacturing, warehouse, fulfilment and distribution centre operations to redeploy personnel resources from simple transport duties to where they can be most productive – such as picking orders into roll cages or onto pallets being carried by the robots.

These facilities are often demanding environments for materials handling equipment. The surfaces on which AMRs travel are not always the smoothest and they are often full of static obstructions such as racking, shelving, conveyors as well as mobile ones like forklift trucks. Mobile robots can rack up significant mileages through a typical year in these environments, working long shifts carrying loads up to the unit’s capacity.

The combination of these factors is why, like any item of materials handling equipment, quality build and robustness are vital characteristics for an AMR – not only to ensure a longer lifespan for the unit, but also to minimise downtime due to repairs.

There and numerous predictions for AMR market growth through the coming decade and while there are many lower cost units that will have limited uses, market growth will be boosted as the limitations that preclude many units from broader applications are being overcome by higher quality mobile robots, such as those from iFollow.

Increased payload capabilities up to 1.3 tonnes will give mobile robots the potential to carry out tasks such as moving barrels or pallets of paint cans. This is just one example of how improving AMR capabilities will broaden their possible deployment. The ability to work between different temperatures, which can risk strain on internal components, is another. Moving between temperature zones from as cold as -25°C to as warm as +40°C, in constrained environments, presents more of a challenge for mobile robot technology than many may realise. In iFollow mobile robots, for example, the temperatures of the key electronic components are regulated by a servo system completely developed by our teams. Thus, the absence of condensation is ensured, even when moving from a very cold environment to a temperate space.

As the number of mobile robot brands and models available on the market increases customer choice, the quality of the design and build is set to be a crucial differentiator. While many mobile robots look similar on the outside there remains a great deal of difference when it comes to quality. And this should be a prime consideration when choosing the right model for applications in which the AMR is to be deployed. The long-term success of an operation will depend on the AMR having the reliability and capability to maximise uptime and maintain flow through a warehouse or production facility.

Check that the AMR has all the required registration and certification. Buying a fleet of a couple of hundred mobile robots, for example, without certification is a huge risk. Has the machine been through a quality process? Is it CE certified? Does it meet the latest standards that are in force for the region where it is being used? What about support – can parts be supplied locally for quick response?

A supplier that both designs and manufactures its own AMRs, as well as providing the supporting software, can better respond to customer problems with solutions adapted to their particular needs. It will be able to tune the mobile robot solution to the application – for example adapting the lifting platform to the needs of the application. This ability often allows a supplier to adapt a single type of robot to fulfil a customer’s entire needs.

iFollow operates in the food, industrial, pharmaceutical, chemical, cosmetic, logistics and mass distribution sectors, which all operate busy, fast moving facilities. The company made the strategic choice to design and manufacture its own autonomous mobile robots – which are all guaranteed – and fully develops its own navigation and fleet management algorithms. Mobile robots are a relatively new technology that is rapidly gaining momentum as a means to gain competitive edge – from grocery retail logistics to industrial manufacturing. Seeking out premium machines that are designed for use in intense, constrained environments and repeated use over time will ultimately deliver greater value for the end user.

Continental premieres AMRs at LogiMAT

Posted on by David Priestman

Continental will present for the first time in public its Autonomous Mobile Robots for the external market at the LogiMAT 2022, the international intralogistics tradeshow, from May 31 to June 2 in Stuttgart, Germany (hall 2, booth number EF15).

After an internal test phase in Continental production locations worldwide, the AMRs are now ready for the external market entry with improved and new features as well as the handling of new use cases. Building on the company’s years of extensive research in the robotics field, Continental is including these solutions now into its product portfolio in the newly established area of Continental Mobile Robots.

“We are pleased to confirm that from now on volume production of the AMRs has started in Continental’s Rheinböllen plant in Germany with the first external customer projects slated to be delivered,” says Pierre Pomper, Head of Autonomous Mobile Robots at Continental. “Continental complements its in-house capabilities with a partner ecosystem of technology leaders Kinexon and ROEQ to provide customers a leading edge AMR solution out of one hand.”

Since 2020, Continental’s AMRs have been successfully deployed at several own production locations worldwide. The company built its Autonomous Mobile Robots in-house to meet the demands and challenges of the future factory, since such a solution was not readily available in the market. The experience gained has now been incorporated into the AMR version for the external market.

Due to the load density, the electric vehicles are as small and compact as possible, but can carry very heavy weights. With measurements of only 1,455mm, 630mm and 225mm (l/w/h), the AMRs can carry significant loads up to 1.2 tonnes at a speed of up to 2m/s. Thus, they are versatile, while also being maximally manoeuvrable. Increased torque, shorter turning radius, optimised sensor coverage, improvements to its lifting mechanism design and accessibility of controls as well as the easy equipment for the transport of carts, pallets and top rollers are additional features.

Customers can benefit from a partnership between Continental and Kinexon. The fleet management software of Kinexon which is offered optionally turns an AMR fleet into an intelligent and perfectly coordinated swarm. The creation of orders and routes as well as the management of the AMRs will become much easier and more standardised (e.g., using the VDA5050 protocol).

“We developed a reliable and scalable fleet management software in collaboration with Continental, which increases the flexibility and performance of our customers AMR fleets. Additionally, we offer an Ultra-Wideband (UWB) system for connecting relevant things of the material flow such as AMRs. Our holistic fleet management software combines this information in real time to optimise supply chains, material flow and industrial automation even more,” says Dr. Alexander Hüttenbrink, Managing Director at Kinexon.

Continental is able to offer its AMRs with different top modules. Customers can choose between cart/rack and lifting unit use cases. Due to the close collaboration with ROEQ, a leading expert for robotic equipment, Continental can now also offer top roller modules, for transferring loads between AMRs and conveyors. The number of options offered is what makes Continental’s offering so unique. At LogiMAT, an AMR with top roller module from ROEQ will be shown as a world premiere.

“We are excited to team up with a strong partner like Continental,” says Michael E. Hansen, Managing Director at ROEQ. “We are on a path of significant growth and I am convinced that our collaboration will provide customers with a wider choice of better and more robust solutions to meet their logistic challenges.”

The AMRs are an attractive shopfloor logistics solution for several industries including logistics and warehousing, automotive, food and beverage as well as electrical and electronics. They work hand-in-hand with humans, reduce manual activities such as driving forklift trucks, speed up transport and provide an accurate overview of shopfloor inventory and its storage location. Continental offers everything from a single source, which is not quite common in the market and a big benefit for the customers: From consulting, sales, integration, service and support to maintenance contracts and a 24-hour support – everything out of one hand.

IFOY FINALIST FOCUS: Locus Robotics’ AMR Solution

Posted on by David Priestman

Continuing with our run-through of each of the IFOY Award nominated finalists ahead of the winners announcement on 30th June at BMW World, we look at Locus Robotics’ AMR Solution, the first of two entries in the Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV/AMR) category.

IFOY category: Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV/AMR)

Locus Robotics is a leading provider of intelligent autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) that operate collaboratively with human workers to improve productivity and throughput within the warehouse and manufacturing facilities. The solution helps retailers, 3PLs, specialty warehouses, and manufacturers meet and exceed increasingly complex and demanding requirements, integrating into existing infrastructures without disrupting workflows, and enabling customers full ROI within six to eight months.

The solution consists of an integrated execution platform that uses proprietary optimization algorithms and real-time operational performance data to coordinate labor and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) to deliver two to three times more productivity and throughput. In addition, Locus provides a variety of AMR form factors to apply the right robot to the right job, at the right time. A purpose-built, integrated robotics solution designed to automate all material flow within the warehouse and manufacturing facilities.

Description

Locus’s strength lies in the maturity and optionality of our execution platform which provides real-time optimization of all tasks to be completed within the four walls and across multiple levels in warehousing and manufacturing environments. The software acts as a fleet manager, managing complex workflows that support a variety of use cases and clustering work to build optimal robot missions.

The unique multi-bot approach decouples workers from orders and tasks, minimizing unproductive associate time and assigning the right robot form factor to meet the right human at the right time to collaboratively perform the next most efficient task. Proven at scale, the system can seamlessly add robots to add capacity to any operation within minutes.

Locus also improves the overall workplace quality and ergonomics. Workers no longer need to push heavy carts and walk long distances to keep up with growing order fulfilment demands. Workers stay in zones while the bots bring the work to them. This significantly lowers worker fatigue, and improves workplace safety to deliver higher productivity and lower overall labour costs for recruitment, training, and retention. Locus customers are seeing documented double or triple increases in their fulfilment productivity and fulfilment cycle times, while significantly lowering labour recruitment, training, and retention costs for  both full time and seasonal positions.

CLICK HERE to watch three case studies.

IFOY TEST REPORT

The US provider Locus Robotics offers its autonomous robots, which work collaboratively with warehouse staff, exclusively in a packaged rental model. After the set-up with a one-time “start-up fee”, a “core fleet” is available to the customer for his tasks. This is an average of between 45 and 50 vehicles per customer, with fluctuations (rather) upwards and less downwards not excluded, of course. The robot manufacturer from Wilmington in the Greater Boston metropolitan region (Massachusetts/USA) has been active in Europe since 2019.

At the moment, Locus serves around 80 customers in about 200 warehouses with its picking system. The customers come not only from retail, but also from pharmaceuticals and industry (ABB). Picking into the 45-kilogram moving robot is extremely easy: the type and quantity of the products to be picked at the location and placed into the small load carrier on the Locus robot are very clearly displayed on the clear touchscreen. Picked, confirmed, and the fast journey continues. The tester has never found this so easy, intuitive and without a single second of “learning the ropes”.

The peak season for Locus is November/December, because the Christmas business easily burdens retailers with four to five times as much picking work as during the year. According to a survey by Material Handling Industry (MHI) and Deloitte, 56% of respondents have “extreme problems” finding suitable staff. No wonder: up to now, about 40 to 60% in the warehouse are determined by walking, with an average age in Germany of 40 to 55 years.

Locus solves this problem pragmatically and effectively by separating the employees from the picking trolleys: the work comes to the pickers, i.e. a classic goods-to-person principle. However, not stoically standing only at a fixed workstation, but “flowing” in a certain area, which normally, however, does not go beyond the warehouse aisle. This not only saves a lot of energy, but also makes the work far more effective and productive than picking along. Locus does not replace the customer’s inventory management system, but obtains its information about the product and the number of units to be picked from it. The Locus software clusters the orders for the optimal picking route – of the roving units, mind you, not of the individual pickers – and which orders are connected on a container. In the field, the system works with high-quality Lidar sensors (“Light Detection and Ranging”). Irrespective of the time saved by short distances for the pickers: the picking system also increases productivity by the fact that the human at a single picking position, for example, spends only 8 instead of 12 seconds – that adds up. When picking, both hands are free for the products to be picked.

If necessary, a seasonal fleet can easily be added to the core fleet mentioned at the beginning, for example for two to three months for the Christmas business. The robots themselves are produced between May and November and are maintained quickly and leanly. A total of around 8,000 of these robots are currently in use, 2,000 of them in Europe. When the going gets tough, 100 to 500 f the robots can easily be produced – per week. The “package” also mentioned above consists of the uncomplaining replacement of the robots during maintenance; in the event of malfunctions, the customer does not incur any additional costs. Every three months, the so-called “field service” comes to the customer’s premises to check on things. It also takes three months for the customer to implement such a system.

IFOY Test Verdict

With collaborative AMR, retailers, 3PLs, but also operators of special warehouses or manufacturers can greatly improve their effectiveness with an ROI of six to eight months. In doing so, an integrated execution platform uses proprietary optimisation algorithms and operational performance data to coordinate “man and machine”. On the subject of innovation, Locus has 33 patents in the US and seven in Europe. An additional 23 patents have been filed in Europe.

IFOY INNOVATION CHECK

Market relevance: In terms of market relevance, Locus’ AMR Solution hits the head. The massive increase in e-commerce requires cost-effective solutions to increase throughput, which has been impressively realised with Locus’ all-in-one solution. The business concept makes the solution affordable also for smaller companies. Therefore, the market relevance is considered to be very high. In addition, the sustainable handling of the equipment through reuse and refurbishment meets the demand of today’s trend, which makes the solution even more interesting.

Customer benefit: Customers benefit in many ways and to a great extent from the AMR Solution. An enormous increase in productivity can be expected with a simultaneous reduction in the workload of the employees. In addition, customers enjoy a full service if required, can monitor internal performance data and use the software system to optimise workflow. The presentation based on reference projects is fully convincing and shows the benefits for the current boom in e-commerce. Enormous customer interest is also seen in the flexibility. An uncomplicated expansion or reduction of the machinery fleet in the case of fluctuating seasonal business is possible without financial risk and thus meets the modern requirements in this area.

Novelty: The overall system impresses in many ways and can be considered highly innovative. Without complex technology, the robots are used efficiently to increase productivity and can also be operated intuitively. The human-machine interaction is limited to the essentials for a practical application and has been implemented very well. This is where innovation meets real practical benefit. An innovative convenience is working with individual personal tags, which, for example, immediately adapts the user interface to the correct language of the employee.

Functionality / type of implementation: Due to a professional presentation of all aspects, the AMR solution from Locus could be comprehended very well. The handling of the devices during order picking is very easy and the flexible reaction to obstacles is done without any problems. The devices themselves are limited to the most essential things and make it clear that an efficient use of hardware and software can have a huge effect.

Verdict: Locus’ extraordinary AMR solution is an excellent response to current market demands.

market relevance ++
customer benefit ++
novelty ++
functionality / type of implementation +
[++ very good / + good / Ø balanced / – less / – – not available]

For an overview of all the finalists, visit www.ifoy.org

CLICK HERE to find out more about Locus Robotics’ AMR Solution.

 

 

RangePlus DC achieves significant efficiency improvement

Posted on by David Priestman

Geek+, a global leader in AMR technology, has announced the successful implementation of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) at independent British online retailer RangePlus’s fulfilment centre. The new automated storage and retrieval system was designed and delivered in collaboration with warehouse automation specialist and Geek+ strategic delivery partner Breathe Technologies. The modernisation provides RangePlus the firepower to compete with larger actors in the growing e-commerce sector.

Lit Fung, VP and Managing Director, Overseas Business at Geek+, said: “We are delighted to see our smart picking solution enable RangePlus to achieve efficient, flexible, and accurate operations. This digital transformation helps them greatly increase their competitiveness and chart their own course as an independent ecommerce provider.”

Due to the change in customers’ shopping behaviour from buying in brick-and-mortar shops to online purchasing, RangePlus has seen rapidly growing order demand, and its original manual order picking was holding the business back. With a high number of small and irregular goods, manual order picking processes were time-consuming and prone to error. RangePlus began looking at automation solutions to boost warehouse capacity and throughput. After comparing different order picking options, Geek+’s cost-effective, flexible, automated warehouse picking system was the best choice to help them handle a 25% increase in order volumes and 40% in SKUs.

Marcus Uprichard, Head of Business Development & Partnerships at Breathe Technologies, said: “Working closely with RangePlus and Geek+, we’ve created an automated warehouse picking system that’s incredibly flexible, modular, and perfectly suited to high-growth e-commerce environments.”

The Geek+ goods-to-person solution is running 24/7 in RangePlus’s fulfilment centre with 243,000 SKUs and handles over 250,000 orders per year. After automating its picking process, RangePlus achieved a 300% improvement in picking rate and order picking time, as well as a 25% reduction in operating costs. They also maximised their warehouse capacity by stocking 50% more SKUs in the same space while reducing error rates and minimising waste. Their ROI is 100% under two years, proving that investing in AMRs is a sound investment.

Shabbab Al-Ghamdi, co-founder of RangePlus, said: “This automated warehouse picking system has been a wise financial decision. We can now significantly increase the amount we pick, pack, and ship… the system is paying for itself.”

Geek+ picking AMRs automate the picking process by bringing the inventory shelves to the warehouse operator at the picking station. The solution reduces the time spent finding and moving goods around manually and improves not only picking accuracy but also employee productivity and comfort. Empowered by artificial intelligence, inventory shelves are arranged according to demand in real time; the most in-demand items are close to the operator to ensure a fast and efficient picking process.

Geek+’s solutions offer valuable flexibility to companies navigating the rapid changes inherent to e-commerce. The sudden rises in demand that accompany peak seasons like Black Friday and Christmas can be met by quickly adding AMRs to the system. Geek+ will continue creating and applying smart logistics technology to support independent e-commerce merchants’ transition to smart logistics operations.

 

 

Subscribe

Get notified about New Episodes of our Podcast, New Magazine Issues and stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter.