During the COVID-19 pandemic, corporate warehouses have been struggling to keep up with the massive increase in online shopping, but warehouse automation robotics can help.

"Robots and other emerging technologies help increase the flexibility and resilience of the supply chain by improving the accuracy and timeliness of product information," said Melanie Nuce, senior vice president of innovation and partnerships at the standards organization GS1 US.

Affected by the epidemic, companies are facing various problems, including labor shortages, production shutdowns, and delays in shipping time. These challenges will continue to affect business performance in 2022.

Smarter warehouse robots fill the gap between automated material handling systems and more flexible manual fulfillment processes. Various types of warehouse automation robots enhance human activities, such as picking, moving shelves, packaging pallets, and inventory overhead shelves.

Companies have traditionally asked about better warehouse management software. However, Gartner vice president analyst Dwight Klappich, who has 42 years of experience in the warehousing technology industry, said that since the pandemic, robotics has become the number one hot topic.

He also saw a major shift in the reasons for adopting automation technology. Managers have historically focused on using automation to reduce the number of employees. Now, companies are struggling to retain enough people in their teams, and labor costs are rising. "Even if the cost is higher, they still can't find enough people. That's why they are studying robotics," Klappich said.

This interest is driven by a new type of warehouse robot technology designed to enhance operations and collaborate with humans. Industrial robots have existed for decades, but their capabilities are often limited and blocked to protect personnel and equipment. Emerging warehouse robots use artificial intelligence to navigate facilities, select items, and coordinate collaboration with people.

The types of enterprise warehouse robot systems include:

Robotic warehouse automation currently accounts for only a small part of the entire warehouse automation expenditure, but it is growing rapidly. Consulting firm Interact Analysis predicts that the mobile robot market may grow from approximately US$3.6 billion in 2021 to US$18 billion in 2025. The number of warehouse facilities equipped with mobile robots is also expected to increase from 9,000 in 2020 to 53,000 in 2025. In addition, Interact Analysis predicts that by the end of 2025, there will be 2.1 million robots in use, of which 860,000 were shipped that year alone.

Interact Analysis uses mobile robots as an integral part of the broader warehouse automation market, which is expected to grow from US$49.6 billion in 2020 to US$69 billion in 2025. Fixed automation systems, such as automatic storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS), conveyor belts and, in the foreseeable future, sorters will overshadow other forms of automation.

AS/RS is a capital-intensive method for optimizing the space and efficiency of facilities. In some AS/RS examples, mobile robots may travel on dedicated tracks to retrieve cargo from suitcases stored on multiple floors. This may be more effective, but it is expensive to set up. Instead, simpler robots can be used to operate in a specific, tightly controlled environment.

Florian Pestoni, CEO of InOrbit, a cloud-based robot management platform, sees the highest adoption rate of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs). The location is moved to another location.

Gabriel Aguiar Noury, Robotics Product Manager at Ubuntu publisher Canonical, observes that robots are getting better and better at moving and manipulating goods-these are two basic activities in a warehouse. Some simpler robots are essentially pallets with wheels. In a more automated environment, these goods can move automatically within and between baskets.

Robots are also getting better at manipulating goods on a large scale. Health and safety regulations only allow one person to move up to 50 pounds, and people become tired at the end of long shifts. "The robot can easily lift more [weight] and [do it] faster, keeping the goods flowing throughout the warehouse," Nuri said. "Truck unloading is one of the most challenging tasks in a warehouse. Using robots can also reduce injuries and health hazards."

Pestoni believes that the biggest benefit of warehouse robotics to the supply chain is to automate the manual movement of goods, especially when critical thinking is hardly required. He hopes that warehouses and retailers will begin to explore other aspects of the automated supply chain, such as automated truck transportation for long-distance travel. The company is also exploring ways to automate supply chain delivery. For example, instant logistics company Zipline is developing drones to transport medical supplies to remote hospitals. Small AMRs and self-driving cars are beginning to automate the journey from the fulfillment center to the customer's home.

Warehouse automation robots can also improve the visibility of the supply chain by automating the inventory process. Historically, most warehouses were not designed for easy navigation, but inventory robots used computer vision, deep learning, and standardized product recognition to meet this challenge. “Companies like Ware and Gather AI use computer vision and deep learning to scan warehouse shelves with speed and accuracy that human employees cannot match,” Nuce said.

Accurate inventory and location data can make the difference between winning and losing customers. Wider adoption of new inventory data standards can facilitate data exchange between trading partners. “The more information all trading partners can [master] about the products flowing in the supply chain, the better they can predict demand, avoid interruptions, and deliver the right products to the right places at the right time,” Nuce explained Say.

Realtime Robotics senior director of global logistics Zach Gomez said that the development of warehouse robotics technology can also make it easier to deploy AI software for order placement. Slot refers to the location where items are stored. In traditional methods, similar products are stored close to each other, but they are not always shipped together.

"Recently, the software uses artificial intelligence to analyze past order data and store items closer to items traditionally shipped together to reduce travel time and increase efficiency," Gomez said. For example, a grocery store fulfillment center might place potato chips next to soft drinks because they are usually sold together.

Thanks to innovations in sensors, machine vision, artificial intelligence, computing power and new hardware, warehouse robots are constantly improving. These technologies paved the way for physical simulations that increase awareness, enhance problem-solving capabilities, and help robots learn faster. Thomas Evans, Chief Technology Officer of Honeywell Robotics, said: "These innovations bring modern tools that we see in warehouses every day, such as depalletizing robots, autonomous mobile robots and AS/RS.

Older warehouse robots, called automated guided vehicles (AGVs), move through warehouses or facilities along fixed routes by sensing buried electrical wires or looking for unique marks. But these systems have limitations. They will stop and wait for any obstacles blocking their designated path to be cleared. On the other hand, AMR combines advanced sensors, artificial intelligence coprocessors and machine vision algorithms to bring greater flexibility to warehouse robots.

By adding AI and continuous learning, AMR can react in real time and adopt workflows to effectively navigate different levels of demand and operational changes. “Therefore, in response to the challenges of e-commerce and labor scarcity, the use of AMR in warehouses has exploded,” said Matthew Cherewka, director of business development and strategy at Vecna ​​Robotics.

Artificial intelligence can also improve the guidance system of autonomous stock drones. Skydio, which makes autonomous drones, has been working with Ware AI to help organizations incorporate autonomous inventory capabilities into their workflows. Skydio CEO Adam Bry said that his team uses advanced computer vision and artificial intelligence technology to build real-time 3D maps of complex environments, plan collision-free paths around obstacles, and automate complex tasks.

Some companies even try to teach the goods to move by themselves. For example, Seoul Robotics cooperated with a European car manufacturer to develop infrastructure to drive the entire vehicle into a parking lot. The system uses lidar sensors embedded in the factory and a centralized artificial intelligence navigation system to control vehicles that may lack advanced sensors or autonomous driving capabilities.

This technology reduces the cost of each vehicle and helps the team redesign the factory to increase efficiency. Jerone Floor, Vice President of Products and Solutions at Seoul Robotics, said: “Navigating vehicles around manufacturing plants is costly, challenging, and prone to human error. A warehouse orchestration engine that supports artificial intelligence can also improve the coordination between robots and humans. Experts such as Cherewka of Vecna ​​Robotics believe that this is becoming more and more important in the face of new global supply chain challenges and growing consumer demand.

In the future, improvements in warehouse automation robot technology will improve the creation and management of autonomous retail systems, such as automatic replenishment and no checkout experience. "Warehouse automation will not only respond to current in-store conditions, it will also begin to predict demand, such as approaching expiration dates," Nuce said.

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