4 DC VELOCITY MAY 2018 www.dcvelocity.com
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A world record was set at last month’s
Modex 2018 trade show in Atlanta. And
though show attendees may be surprised
to hear it, that record had nothing to do
with the total number of free pens and
foam balls handed out by exhibitors. It
involved something even more arcane:
the number of automated piece picks
performed at a trade show.
In mid-April, RightHand Robotics,
a developer of software and intelligent
gripping devices, announced that robot
workcells equipped with the company’s piece-picking arms had successfully
picked and placed 131,072 items over the
duration of the show. The company says
this is a world record (although famed
record-keeping authority Guinness was
not on hand to corroborate the claim).
Working in conjunction with several
partners, the Somerville, Mass.-based
company deployed its RightPick workcells in five exhibitor booths at the show,
running them throughout the event to
demonstrate their value in e-commerce
fulfillment. RightHand engineers integrated the company’s robotic hand with
collaborative robots from Universal
Robots, which were in turn linked with
sortation systems, automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS), and
mobile robots from a number of partner
companies. RightHand reports that in
some applications, the workcells were
able to pick and place up to 1,000 units
per hour, including products the system
had never seen before.
“We wanted to set a benchmark for
piece-picking performance, and the
show was a fantastic opportunity for
it,” RightHand Robotics co-founder
Yaro Tenzer said in a statement. “We
are grateful to our partners—Eurosort,
Vecna Robotics, White Systems, and
Universal Robots—for helping us estab-
lish this record.”
Here’s our monthly roundup of some of the charitable works and
donations by companies in the material handling and logistics space.
b Bristol, Conn.-based systems integrator Conveyco Technologies
will be the title sponsor of a tournament benefiting the Boys & Girls
Club of Bristol. Proceeds from the 2018 Mayor’s Cup Golf Outing
will help underwrite programming at the club, which provides ser-
vices for young people from disadvantaged economic, social, and
family circumstances.
b Lift truck vendor Hyster Co. auc-
tioned off three wood carvings created
by a chainsaw artist at its booth at the
Modex show in April. The event raised
$1,000 for show sponsor MHI’s Material
Handling Education Foundation, a
charitable organization that promotes
the study of material handling, logistics,
and supply chain management through
financial support for students and
educators.
b Oconomowoc, Wis.-based plastic
pallet and container manufacturer Orbis Corp. has partnered with
Blessings in a BackPack, a nonprofit that seeks to provide food on
the weekends for schoolchildren who might otherwise go hungry.
Orbis recently partnered with the organization’s Waukesha (Wis.)
chapter for a “bag fill” project, helping to fill 4,500 grocery bags for
children in 13 area schools.
b The More Than
the Move Foundation,
the charitable arm of
Houston-based third-par-
ty logistics service pro-
vider Gulf Winds
International, helped to
supply 100,712 meals to
the Houston Food Bank to
continue its relief efforts
for families affected by
Hurricane Harvey. The
foundation partnered with
over 25 logistics industry
companies to package the
meals.
b Newfield, N.J.-based third-party cold chain logistics specialist
RLS Logistics has announced a partnership with the Food Bank
of South Jersey (FBSJ). To kick off the effort, RLS team members
volunteered at the FBSJ’s “Stamp Out Hunger” event, where they
helped load bags of donated food into mail trucks. The Stamp
Out Hunger food drive is conducted annually by the National
Association of Letter Carriers to collect food for people in need.
Logistics gives back Robots set record
for autonomous piece
picking
