Tag: robots

Exoskeleton Service Robotics Move Into the Warehouse

The Future of the Warehouse is Upon Us
The Future of the Warehouse is Upon Us

Robotics, in combination with warehouse equipment, has become a dynamic means of boosting productivity with lower costs. Exoskeleton robots are now poised to become the next big innovation in supply chain and logistics.

Could exoskeleton robots have an application in your warehouse operations? Here’s what you should know about this fascinating technology.

What Are Exoskeleton Robots?

Exoskeleton robots are wearable devices that incorporate electric motors, pneumatics and hydraulics to mimic or augment actual human movements. These devices afford a greater degree of strength and endurance than workers could achieve on their own.

Applications of exoskeleton robots cut across a wide range of fields, from manufacturing and supply chain to healthcare and military. As a result, the market is expected to reach an astonishing $2.8 billion by the year 2023, for a compound annual growth rate of 45.2 percent.

Advantages of Exoskeleton Robot Use

Muscle fatigue and overuse is a primary limitation in a number of activities. An exoskeleton robot lets the user remain functional and productive beyond the point at which they would normally have to stop.

Exoskeleton robots are currently incorporated extensively in two industries:

– Healthcare services use exoskeletons for injury rehabilitation to help muscles recover efficiently.

– The military uses exoskeletons in combat situations to reduce fatigue and injury risk among soldiers.

Full-body exoskeletons aren’t yet ready to be rolled out commercially, but upper- and lower-body exoskeletons have great potential as ergonomic aids for warehouse workers who perform repetitive tasks.

Make Safety a Priority with Ergonomically Designed Warehouse Equipment

Battery-powered warehouse equipment like our best-selling CartCaddyShorty includes features such as variable speed twist grips to prevent common repetitive motion injuries. Use our convenient online chat feature to learn more from our helpful sales engineers.

 

Amazon’s Robotic Warehouses Are Shifting the Warehousing Industry to Focus on Robots to Stay Competitive

Technology is Coming to Warehouses to Improve Efficiency
Robots Are Coming to Warehouses to Improve Efficiency

When Amazon acquired the leading warehouse robotics company, Kiva Systems, in 2012, some feared that the e-commerce giant would monopolize the technology. Instead, we’ve seen a boom of competition for robotics innovation.

Fortunately, fears of lost jobs due to automation have also been tempered. Warehouse equipment, whether it’s a robot or powered tug, can serve to reduce physical injuries and stress for warehouse workers.

From third-party logistics to robotic picking and transporting, warehouse automation continues to evolve and diversify thanks to the healthy competition from robotics firms.

How Warehousing Itself Has Changed

In many ways, it’s not just Amazon but rather the rise of e-commerce itself that has changed warehousing. Instead of loading shipments for brick-and-mortar stores, warehouses are more often packing individual shipments for customers.

For the human workers, picking countless items comes with a heavy physical toll. Repetitive stress injuries, back and neck injuries, and pure exhaustion have long been par for the course. With a powered tug to transport items, or even a robotic picker to locate items for a human to grab, the work becomes less demanding and more manageable.

Protect and Empower Human Workers

Today’s robotics and automated warehouse equipment are not replacing all the humans. The technology can actually make people’s jobs better. As Rick Faulk of Locus recently told reporters, “Now it’s about humans and robots working collaboratively.”

Is your company doing enough to stay competitive and keep up with warehousing technology? Simple and effective steps like removing a time-consuming physical task can easily translate into huge efficiency gains. Consider what our powered tug and cart puller equipment can do for your warehouse.

Will Working with Robots be in Your Future?

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With Your Future Workmates be Robots?

Robots with human characteristics have long been featured in science-fiction tales. There’s a good chance that before long employees in your distribution center will be working side-by-side with these “humanoids.”

The New “Face” of Robotics

Robots have been used for industrial applications for more than 50 years, but developers, anticipating the inevitable step toward direct human-machine interaction, have begun adding more “flesh-and-blood” characteristics. These collaborative robots, or “cobots,” are expected to be seen more frequently within the next five to 10 years.

What’s different about cobots? In addition to having a “face,” they have built-in actuators allowing their joints to mimic the movement of a human arm. Force-sensing technology stops a cobot in its tracks whenever it comes into contact with another object.

Benefits of Cobots

• Cobots can move freely around a DC without the directional aids required by traditional robots.

• Instead of using time-consuming programming for activation, co-workers will actually be able to take a cobot by the “hand” and walk it through the steps of an action or procedure.

• Costs are lower thanks to more efficient construction and less need for a supportive infrastructure.

Not surprisingly, there are fears that cobots will eventually replace human workers. Aldo Zini, president and CEO of Aethon Inc., says the 500 cobots they employ handle many of the repetitive manual duties, freeing up employees for more value-added activities.

Save Time and Money with Industrial Tugs from DJ Products

Moving carts and equipment is another task that consumes valuable resources. Our industrial tugs let a single employee move loads up to 50,000 pounds. Call 800.686.2651 to learn more from our experienced sales engineers.

The Future Is Now!

If you have kids, you’ve probably seen trailers for the new Disney-Pixar animated film WALL-E. Robots like WALL-E and his cohorts represent the wave of the future in material handling, though let’s hope they get the kinks worked out before they start installation. Can you imagine the chaos if a bunch of inept robots was allowed to run amuck on your plant floor? Life, after all, is not a movie. The hero almost never arrives to save the day in the final seconds of a plant emergency!

Robot prototypes that allow us to glimpse and plan for the future of material handling are already on the market. British tech firm RTS Flexible Solutions has introduced a 3-D vision-based robot automation system that can grip complex shapes and profiles, pick at variable heights and even perform some inspection and defect rejection actions.

“Advances in technology mean we can deliver applications which have been difficult for conventional 2D technology,” commented RTS managing director David Bradford. While 2D vision-guided robotic automaton works on grayscale, color or line-scanning vision systems, the new 3D system can process on X, Y and Z coordinates. For the first time this allows a robotic application to accurately gauge height, depth and surface contours, opening new possibilities for material management. 

It will be a while before robotic applications can effectively perform many material handling functions, but that day can already be glimpsed on the horizon. Computer software and management skills are more apt to define material handling workers of the future. It’s going to be a whole new ball game!