Products from Intelligrated, Fetch Robotics and RAM Mounts received Innovation Awards during the Industry Night celebration at Modex on Wednesday. The recipients of the 4th annual MHI Innovation Awards were among 95 total applicants narrowed to 12 finalists in three categories: Best New Innovation, Best Innovation of an Existing Product and – new this year – Best IT Innovation. Intelligrated won Best Innovation of an Existing Product for its Intellisort cross-belt sorter with dynamic discharge compensation, which uses an algorithm and vision system to determine the most accurate discharge trajectory based upon the product’s location on the belt, its dimensions,…
Seegrid announced the recipients of the first annual Robo Journalist of the Year Award during Modex 2016. Jeff Christensen, vice president of products and services, shared, “I would like to thank the many experts in robotics journalism who applied for this award. It was difficult to choose between all the leading journalists reporting on the critical roles robots perform in the supply chain.” The winners include:—First place: John Hitch, Staff Writer at New Equipment Digest—Second place: Bob Trebilcock, Executive Editor at Modern Materials Handling—Third place: Frank Tobe, Owner and Publisher of The Robot Report The award acknowledged top journalists in…
Clearpath Robotics (Booth 3771) unveiled the OTTO 100 autonomous self-driving vehicle in a press conference on Tuesday. Ideal for light-load material transport in congested factories and warehouses, the vehicle is a scaled-down version of the company’s OTTO 1500 for heavy-load, pallet-based material transport, said Matt Rendall, CEO. “As we worked with more customers, we saw an opportunity to support depalletized, case-load transports within a facility,” he said. “Having the smaller, lighter payload vehicle option gives facilities and end-to-end solution.” What’s unique about the self-driving unit—which handles up to 220-pound loads at speeds up to 4.5 mph—is that it navigates without…
Cimcorp (Booth 4347), a manufacturer and integrator of turnkey robotic gantry-based order fulfillment and tire handling solutions, announced the opening of its new U.S.-based office, Cimcorp USA, in Norcross, Georgia. Located in a business and technology park and incorporated in February, Cimcorp will open its U.S. office during the second quarter of 2016. The location will provide Cimcorp’s sales and service team with a local home base in the Southeast market, which has a large projected growth for intralogistics, warehouse automation and manufacturing. Cimcorp is looking to expand its sales and service activities to its customers in its target markets,…
IAM Robotics (Booth 4071) introduced itself to the world and unveiled Swift, its autonomous mobile picking robot. Named one of four finalists for the show’s “Best New Innovation” award, the company is giving live demonstrations of its breakthrough technology at the show. The robot is the key part of a complete order fulfillment solution being introduced by the company, which includes IAM Flash, a 3D item scanner and SwiftLink fleet management software. “Properly executed robotic picking is a game-changing technology for supply chain and warehouse managers,” said CEO Tom Galluzzo. “This is a dream that the material handling industry has…
In a booth press conference on Monday, KNAPP Logistics and Automation’s Kevin Reader, marketing director, discussed the company’s newest technologies, including the Pick-it-Easy fully automatic picking work cell. Robot-centric and ideal for high-quality picking of slow- to medium-moving items, the work cell is on display in Booth 3747. “The booth has a sample work cell configuration of the Pick-it-Easy Robot, fully integrated with warehouse management system (WMS), warehouse control system (WCS), conveyor and pocket sorter,” he said, noting that KNAPP recently completed a pocket sorter installation for REI. “This exhibit is one of a series workstations we offer, centered around…
It’s April and the off year from Promat, which means I’m in Atlanta preparing to attend the Modex show that will open tomorrow morning. I flew in early today so that I’d have a chance to visit the show while exhibitors were putting the final touches on their booths. Based on a quick walk through, here are a topics I want to explore. Robotics: I just finished writing my third System Report in a row for Modern on robotics in the distribution center. Our industry is slow to abandon the tried and true for the new, so I don’t expect…
Disruption and innovation. They are two of the most commonly used words to describe business today, and they often go hand in hand. Established businesses worry that their tried-and-true business models will be the next to be disrupted by a start-up, just as Borders was done in by Amazon and the entertainment industry has been upended by the digitization of music, movies and television. At the same time, every business is wondering if some new technology might be the magic bullet that allows it to innovate and gain a competitive advantage. After all, it’s better to be the disrupter than…
The process of storing, retrieving and marrying up lenses and eyeglass frames in VSP Optics Group’s lab in Folsom, Calif., is elegant and deceptively simple. The solution brings together automated storage and robotics while warehouse execution software (WES) is the critical component that makes it all work. Step 1: The process begins when VSP receives an electronic order from an optometrist. All of the components for that order ride through the processes in a plastic work tray. The system generates a bar code label that is applied to the envelope that is used to store the lenses through various production…
In order to help ensure successful workforce development and sustainable economic growth, Yaskawa Motoman is working to closely align STEM education, certification and training with the needs and expertise of industry leaders. According to the company, organizations must provide the right products, technology and education to fill the gap between what the industry wants and what educational institutions can provide. Yaskawa Motoman is addressing these needs with products, curricula, training certification and services for education and industry. “The challenge is for us to find ways to package our intellectual knowledge and make it available,” said Bob Graff, senior sales manager,…
Schneider Packaging Equipment, a leading manufacturer of end-of-line solutions for case packing, sealing and palletizing, has built a state-of-the-art training laboratory at its headquarters in upstate New York. The lab provides customers the opportunity to train on equipment in a controlled environment. Through hands-on training, customers are able to learn specific technical skills without slowing or stopping their production lines, which helps lower the learning curve once the new system is in place. “Schneider Packaging Equipment now offers training on everything from programmable logic controllers to robotics,” said Jim Kent, director of aftermarket services, Schneider. “By training customers in a…
According to the latest market research study released by Technavio, the global material handling robotics market is expected to exceed $20 billion by 2019, growing at a CAGR of more than 8% during the forecast period. The report segments the global material handling robotics market by end-user and can be divided into five broad categories: automotive, chemical, industrial machinery, food and beverage, and electrical and electronics. Global material handling robotics market in automotive industry The material handling robotics market in the automotive industry is expected to exceed $6 billion by 2019, growing at a CAGR of almost 9%. The automotive…
