Just as AMR intelligence can enhance productivity inside a DC, it can also help speed the movement of products through a larger network that includes multiple fulfillment centers and retail stores, says Akash Gupta, co-founder and CTO of GreyOrange, an Atlanta-based warehouse automation and robotics vendor. In fact, an AMR’s greatest contribution to the fulfillment workflow may lie in its ability to streamline handoffs and interactions all the way down the line.
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“So our goal is to figure out how to get more work assigned to a Chuck as it moves from A to B to C how many picks we can get off a shelf or from a tote at one time or how else we can do this work so each move is as task-heavy as possible.” PLAYING WELL WITH OTHERS “For any goods-to-person robot, the more work it can accomplish per hour of runtime, the more benefit you get,” he explains.
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We love Chuck, but it doesn’t do anything without the software.”Īs for what opportunities the company’s software engineers are currently exploring, it’s all about making each interaction more efficient, Dubois says. “Not that it’s easier to make the hardware, but with software, there is more potential, opportunity, doors to unlock. And today that number is four times,” he says. “Back in 2017 when we launched our AMR, we had three times software engineers than hardware engineers. In Dubois’ view, the chief strength of AMRs-essentially, what enables them to accelerate the flow of goods through the warehouse-is their awareness of how inventory is stored and allocated, as opposed to their physical capabilities, such as how fast they move, how much weight they can carry, or how safely they operate. “Software is now driving the acceleration and the value that people are realizing from robotics, with algorithms for replenishment, slotting, work assignments, and workflows.” “The Kiva robot itself was innovative, but it was a fairly simple device,” he says. Once truly groundbreaking, goods-to-person automation is now “table stakes” for the AMR industry, says Jerome Dubois, co-founder and co-CEO of 6 River Systems, a Massachusetts-based robot maker that was acquired in 2019 by the e-commerce platform Shopify. While warehouse visitors today may be entranced by the robots’ ability to move tangible goods, the magic actually lies in the software that enables AMRs to avoid collisions, analyze traffic, steer clear of bottlenecks, and show awareness of their surroundings-in a word, to think. Ever since the founding of warehouse robotics pioneer Kiva Systems in 2003, observers have compared its rolling orange bots to various types of athletes and pop culture figures-hockey players, ballet dancers, Pac-Man from the world of video games, and even cartoon “Minions” from the “Despicable Me” movies.īut despite that focus on the bots’ physical prowess, many experts say the true strength of what we now call autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) is their intelligence.
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