Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 4.45
…in recent Gartner Inc. research. In a session at ProMat 2023, GreyOrange strove to “demystify” automation for fulfillment. In addition, the company is among those working with third-party logistics provider (3PL) Wagner Logistics on rethinking warehouse robotics. Samay Kohli, co-founder and past CEO of GreyOrange, spoke with Robotics 24/7 about micro-fulfillment centers, multi-tenant spaces, and robotics. Fulfillment evolves into new spaces What do you think about the prospect of multi-use retail stores that include fulfillment space? Kohli: It's a relatively new concept, and not many of our customers have gone to it yet. But since we're omnichannel and muti-brand, we're…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 4.37
…and sortation systems. We then started to go to ProMat and MODEX, and we've built up a tremendous amount of knowledge about warehouse automation. We've heard from both vendors and customers that one barrier is upfront costs. We've built leasing structures to make payments and realize return on investment [ROI] over time. That way, customers can get instant savings from efficiencies. We're one of the rare companies that does this, and we're looked upon very favorably by both robotics suppliers and end users. How is leasing different from robotics as a service (RaaS)? Sanborne: The financial benefits are different from…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 4.30
…the exact number of exhibitors, but the show approached ProMat levels for sheer scale. And there was a lot to see. Hats off to the staff and leadership at MHI for pulling off a tremendous event at a time when there’s still a lot of uncertainty in the air. Exhibitors display incremental innovation So, what was my biggest takeaway from Atlanta? There’s nothing new under the sun. Well, that’s not exactly true – and it’s not meant as a criticism. On the new front, I saw a conveyance system powered by magnets at Beckhoff Automation that I’m still trying to…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 4.29
…this week. The in-person event had been co-located with Promat at McCormick Place in Chicago for several years and would been held in Detroit for the first time. Automate Forward provided an opportunity for integrators and users to learn about robots and automation for a variety of applications. Despite the virtual environment, the show still drew more than 270 exhibitors, including the top robotics suppliers serving the supply chain, logistics and manufacturing industries, according to the Association for Advancing Automation (A3). More than 40 keynote and panel sessions are available for viewing live or on demand. Since floor space wasn’t…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 4.18
…first time for another eight months at the 2015 Promat. Early stage may have been an understatement. While the company had been founded in 2012 by Galluzzo and colleagues from Carnegie Mellon University’s National Robotics Engineering Center, in the summer of 2014, it was largely a PowerPoint presentation on his laptop in the summer of 2014. I’m not sure if they’d gone live with a website at that point. But, with support from Rochester Drug Cooperative, Galluzzo and his team had built an autonomous mobile piece-picking robot that could go up and down a warehouse aisle and pick items from…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 4.03
…was asked about the vendor base a lot at ProMat, and I’ve been saying that acquisitions will come mostly from external companies – like major retailers, automation integrators, and big tech companies. What was somewhat surprising was Shopify’s decision to offload 6RS, but this is clearly a wider cost-cutting exercise that its going through. My opinion was that 6RS was struggling a little within the Shopify family and not showing the growth the parent was hoping for. The mobile robot market grew quickly into the pandemic, but what are its prospects now that e-commerce growth has slowed or even reversed?…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 3.76
…Source: 6 River Systems 6 River Systems impresses At ProMat in April 2019, a team from Top Notch met with representatives of Waltham, Mass.-based 6 River Systems. The team also visited a 6RS customer in the Chicago area to see its system in action. When compared with the alternatives, AMRs appeared to be the best fit, said Top Notch executives. “Our business model is old-fashioned wholesale distribution. We buy in bulk and receive pallets,” explained Brian Phillips, manager of the Missouri facility. Phillips, who had experience running large, highly automated distribution centers, was part of the team at ProMat. “At…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 3.72
Among the many innovative technologies on display at ProMat this year were an assortment of robotic piece-picking solutions. Until very recently, these technologies were considered unrealistic for addressing the broad range of items handled in the average warehouse. For example, the winner of the inaugural Amazon Picking Challenge in 2015 was able to pick 10 of 12 correct items in less than 20 minutes. It would be a long time, it seemed, before such robots could compete with the dexterity and speed of even the slowest human picker. Now, many big players have unveiled robotic piece-picking technologies, often in partnership…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 3.28
…interest? Buena-Franco: A big portion of our space at ProMat 2023 was AGVs [automated guided vehicles], which we're very excited about. We've had a pallet truck for some time, but it's enhanced. It's now faster and able to do staging, which is somthing our customers have been asking for. Martin Buena-Franco, Raymond Corp. We're also adding fully automatic autocharging capability to our whole AGV fleet. At Automate in Detroit, we showed our “total systems approach” with local reseller and integration partners. The ability to quickly and easily deliver solutions without disrupting what the customer is doing is an art and…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 3.27
…vendors. The company made its North American debut at ProMat earlier this year. CoEvolution has two main offerings: the R-Star Flexible Smart Factory Solution and the CO-PICK Smart Warehouse Solution. R-Star is designed to help customers more easily integrate automation into their facilities. It allows for the control of different types of mobile robots under one platform, claimed the company. R-Star is compatible with multiple WMS and manufacturing systems. “It handles the path planning and traffic control of a large fleet of mobiles robots, and its powerful optimization engine continuously optimizes the overall workflow in real-time,” CoEvolution wrote on its…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 3.20
…to another? That April, the new team went to ProMat 2017 to see what the industry had to offer. “We were deliberate about who we spoke to,” McDonald says, “and after we narrowed the solutions we were interested in down to collaborative robots, we narrowed that down to a few providers.” Over the course of the summer, the innovation team visited sites where cobots were up and running; they visited company headquarters to learn more about the various providers and their cultures; and asked the potential providers to develop a business case. The fact that this is a new technology,…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 2.63
…into picking operations. Vision technologies were on display at ProMat in 2017, and Modern Materials Handling (a sibling site to Robotics 24/7) featured a pilot vision-guided, pick-to-cart process at a DHL facility in March 2018. According to Laura Adams, vice president of technology, engineering, systems, and solutions at CJ Logistics, vision-guided picking might be ready to move out of the emerging technology category. CJ Logistics implemented the technology as part of a multimodal case-picking system at its new facility in Dallas. CJ Logistics is combining vision with voice in a process where associates receive location, SKU and quantity information on…