Industrial Robots Evolve to Meet Warehouse Challenges

Until recent­ly, indus­tri­al robots have been rel­a­tive strangers to the ware­house dis­tri­b­u­tion indus­try. But new devel­op­ments in robot tech­nol­o­gy, specif­i­cal­ly robot­ic soft­ware, vision sys­tems, sen­sors, and EOAT, have brought about a new era.

Thanks to these advance­ments, robots are now capa­ble of offer­ing dis­tri­b­u­tion com­pa­nies much more intel­li­gent and flex­i­ble solu­tions.

The ware­hous­ing indus­try has been quick to embrace the new and improved robot­ic tech­nol­o­gy. Accord­ing to a study by Paul Kel­let, RIA Mar­ket Analy­sis Direc­tor, ware­house dis­tri­b­u­tion is one of the most promis­ing emerg­ing mar­kets for indus­tri­al robots.

Fac­to­ry Han­dling Ver­sus Ware­house Handling:

Robot­ics is not the only rapid­ly evolv­ing indus­try. Ware­house dis­tri­b­u­tion has under­gone many changes too. The vari­ety and num­ber of SKU’s has increased dra­mat­i­cal­ly in recent years. Cycle times have short­ened con­sid­er­ably because of the rapid and con­stant changes in prod­uct size, shape, and pack­ag­ing. In addi­tion, the anato­my of pal­lets has switched from homoge­nous to large­ly het­ero­ge­neous as the demand for mixed, direct-to-store pal­lets increas­es.

Pre­vi­ous­ly, indus­tri­al robots were best suit­ed for fac­to­ry mate­r­i­al han­dling sit­u­a­tions where one sim­i­lar­ly shaped prod­uct is pal­letized or de-pal­letized. Luck­i­ly, recent advance­ments allow robots to lend a hand even in the fast-paced and ever-chang­ing ware­house dis­tri­b­u­tion indus­try.

Robot­ic Tool­ing to Fit Ware­house Needs:

In order to han­dle a wide vari­ety of prod­uct sizes and shapes, robots in ware­house dis­tri­b­u­tion cen­ters require extreme­ly flex­i­ble end-of-arm-tool­ing. Advance­ments in robot­ic grip­per tech­nol­o­gy make it pos­si­ble for robots to accom­mo­date a mix of dif­fer­ent pack­ag­ing mate­ri­als and prod­uct dimen­sions. This allows robots to load and unload mixed SKU pal­lets. Robot­ic grip­pers are able to han­dle parts with care and dex­ter­i­ty — main­tain­ing prop­er pal­let bal­ance and pro­tect­ing prod­ucts from dam­age.

Soft­ware for Dis­tri­b­u­tion Applications:

Robot man­u­fac­tur­ers such as Fanuc Robot­ics and Motoman have cre­at­ed appli­ca­tion-spe­cif­ic soft­ware that allows mate­r­i­al han­dling robots to pro­vide intel­li­gent solu­tions for dis­tri­b­u­tion cen­ters. This soft­ware offers algo­rithms (pre­planned and/​or real-time) which make it pos­si­ble for the robot to adjust to dif­fer­ent prod­ucts, vary­ing align­ments, pal­let bal­ance, mixed pal­let arrange­ments, and any unplanned changes (that’s where the real-time soft­ware option steps in).

[Some of the soft­ware options include Fanuc ROBOGU­IDE Han­dling­PRO, Pal­let­Tool, Ran­dom Order Pal­let Tool, MotoPal­let EG, Easy­Pal­let Pen­dant, and Easy­Load Pen­dant.

Devel­op­ments in Vision and Sens­ing Technology:

Anoth­er key ele­ment in the robot tech­nol­o­gy evo­lu­tion is vision and sens­ing. Vision sys­tems (such as Fanuc iRVi­sion) for robots have become more reli­able, afford­able, and easy to use. Robot vision is an invalu­able tool when it comes to locat­ing and posi­tion­ing prod­ucts in ware­house set­tings. Sen­sors give robots even greater del­i­ca­cy when han­dling and plac­ing prod­ucts. Togeth­er, vision and sens­ing tech­nol­o­gy allow robots to main­tain safe­ty and prod­uct qual­i­ty stan­dards.

Inter­est­ed in learn­ing more about robot­ic ware­hous­ing? Con­tact the experts at Robots​.com online or at 877−762−6881.