BY BEN AMES, SENIOR EDITOR
ROBOTICS AND EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
technologyreview
Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto!
COLLECTING BOXES OFF A CONVEYOR BELT AND STACKING THEM NEATLY
on a pallet can be boring, backbreaking work. So when robotic palletizers began to show
up in warehouses some 15 years ago, their arrival was hailed as a way to free up human
workers to handle more complex tasks around the DC.
Fast forward to 2015. The world of warehousing and distribution robotics is now on
the verge of another big change, driven by advances in three of the enabling technologies
that are necessary for a successful industrial robot deployment.
In recent years, engineers have improved robotic intelligence, providing sensors and
data to drive more complex applications; robotic mobility, allowing robots to move to
the appropriate location in a large warehouse; and robotic vision, using three-dimensional perception to locate specific objects in a cluttered environment.
Designers are taking advantage of these new tools to bring robots to parts of the logistics operation where they haven’t been seen before.
Counting manufacturing as well as distribution, an estimated 236,000 robots are now
in use at American factories, placing the U.S. second only to Japan in robot use. And that
number is growing fast, according to the Robotic Industries Association (RIA).
A total of 22,427 robots valued at $1.3 billion were ordered from North American
companies in the first nine months of 2015, a jump of 6 percent in units and 9 percent in
dollars over the same period last year.
Having trouble
finding workers for
dull, dangerous, or
dirty tasks?
For more and
more DCs, the
answer is a robot.
