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Despite the expense, that
approach was common 20
years ago, when early generations of automated guided
vehicles (AGVs) required
wire-guided controls buried
in cement warehouse floors
so the vehicles could follow
predetermined routes like
streetcars moving through a
city, Rabeneck says.
More recent offerings—
such as the robots developed by Amazon Robotics, Clearpath
Robotics, and Locus Robotics—require
less infrastructure, using unobtrusive
technologies like “lidar” and vision systems for navigation instead of relying on permanent hardware like wires,
magnets, or beacons. Thanks to those
advances, companies are finding it easier to add robots to a warehouse, whether the building is new or old.
“Your building just needs to be a big
empty box,” Rabeneck says. “To retrofit
it, you might need a lot of electronics
and communications up on the roof,
like wireless router boxes, and either
a server in one corner of the facility
or communications through the cloud.
And you’d probably need charging stations for the units.”
GETTING ROBOT-READY
In addition to wiring a building with
advanced charging and communications systems, several basic details in
the design and layout of a facility can
affect its readiness to host material
handling robots, says Tom Galluzzo,
founder and CEO of Pittsburgh-based
Iam Robotics.
“The name of the game is optimizing
a solution to whatever your goal is,
whether that’s an each-picking solution
or [one where machines] collaborate
with the work force,” Galluzzo says.
But the needs of people aren’t always
aligned with those of the machines, he
says. “For example, people usually like
working in a temperature of 70 degrees,
whereas robots might want it to be 50
degrees. If you’re going to use both
manual and robotic solutions, you need
a happy medium.”
Even interior design can affect the
choice of robotics. For instance, people
will gladly walk around on carpeting
all day, but robots don’t like carpets,
Galluzzo says.
“We look for pristine, bare, flat con-
crete floors,” says Galluzzo. “We’ve
been in places with hundred-year-old
wooden floors and they’re really beat
up. To drive robots on that would be
like driving your car on cobblestones all
day long.”
The layout of a DC is also important,
since most robots need to be insulated
from the elements, not operating any-
where near a loading dock where rain
or snow could blow in and affect their
electronics, he says.
Finally, just as any building has features dedicated to its human workers’
needs—such as a soda machine or a
break room—a warehouse designed for
robots would need its own “amenities.”
For instance, an automated DC design
could call for a reinforced power grid to
handle the extra charging stations and
a redundant electric generator so the
building doesn’t shut down every time
a storm knocks the power out.
Safety is another crucial consideration in a robotic fulfillment facility.
Recent laptop and smartphone recalls
have highlighted the potential for lithium-ion batteries to overheat and even
spark fires. A lot of robots today use
similar lithium-ion battery technology,
which not only raises the question of
fire safety but also has implications
for operations where DC workers are
trained to safely handle the lead-acid
technologyreview ROBOTICS/EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
