Warehouse Robotics | Fort Wayne

Imagine slashing your warehouse human resource expenditures by up to 50%, adding around the clock shifts that squeeze even more production out of your facility and having instant availability of troves of real-time data on all aspects of your facility. Warehouse robotics systems can help you reshape your business, slashing expenses, boosting production and strengthening performance.

Types of Warehouse Robots

Although a handful of warehouse robotics solutions have been around for decades, others are bleeding edge solutions that have the potential to fundamentally change the distribution and warehousing industry as we know it. The primary classifications of robotics system are:

Articulated Robotic Arms: Robotic arms with multiple joints can pick up and move goods in a warehouse. They're often applied to receiving functions, like relocating items from pallets to racks, or in production scenarios, for picking and shipping.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Unmanned aerial vehicles, conventionally referred to as drones, can deliver real-time inventory visibility in a warehouse by using RFID technology.

Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (AS/RS) : AS/RS can retrieve inventory from racks and return items to their appropriate storage slots. Examples of AS/RS solutions are cranes that retrieve goods between aisles, vertical or horizontal carousel systems and shuttle systems.

Goods-to-Person technology (G2P): Instead of using humans to pick items from bins and racks, G2P systems use robots to deliver items to picking stations, where workers are stationed to complete orders as items are delivered.

Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) : AGVs, like self-driving forklifts, carts or pallet jacks, transfer goods between locations inside a warehouse. Cart based AGVs are sometimes referred to as Automatic Guided Carts, or AGCs.

Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) : Like AGCs and AGVs, AMRs can transfer items throughout a facility autonomously. In contrast to AGCs and AGVs, which travel set paths often directed by wire tracks or magnetic strips, AMRs make use of cameras, maps and sensors to negotiate frequently changing routes by evaluating their surroundings.

Applications For Warehouse Robots

In the past, robotic applications in distribution centers and warehouses, warehouses and distribution centers were restricted to a handful of taks. As technology has improved, robotic capabilities have broadened and they can now be used for almost any function in a warehouse:

Loading and unloading: Although total automation of loading and unloading trailers is not yet a possibility, automated systems like conveyors and AGVs can be employed to augment your loading dock speed.

Palletizing and de-palletizing: Robotic systems are ideal for monotonous, recurrent tasks like palletizing. Palletizizing robots normally make use of a special End-of-Arm Tool to pick up items and place them on a pallet. They're frequently coupled with conveyor systems that supply items to the palletizing area.

Sorting: Robotic sortation systems must have the ability to select objects, recognize them and put them in the proper bin or storage slot. As goods advance along a conveyor, these robots use cameras to recognize individual items and pick them out.

Picking: The vast majority of workforce costs in a warehouse originate from picking activities, and robotic picking solutions have been around for decades to help tackle this problem. However, today's robotic picking systems offer increased speed, improved accuracy, more efficiency and far better value versus systems of just a few years ago.

Packaging: Robotic solutions are well suited for recurrent and tedious jobs like packaging. They may also be used for more complex tasks like weighing, dimensioning and cartonizing.

Transportation: Robotic transportation systems are used extensively in warehouses, from simple AGVs / AGCs to AMRs and conveyor systems that are integrated with AS/RS.

Storage: AS/RS implementations emoby several categories of warehouse robots, including cranes, pallet shuttles and mini-load systems. AS/RS is also sometimes used in conjunction with mobile racking systems to optimize space utilization.

Delivery: Large e-com businesses are testing autonomous delivery drones, self-driving trucks and other technologies that will revolutionize last mile delivery options in the coming years.

Replenishment: Using RFID to keep track of inventory, warehouse drones can survey barcode labels up to 50% faster than manual scanning and communicate inventory counts back to the WMS instantaneously.

Industrial Robotics Companies Near Me

To find out more about industrial robotic solutions for your business, call an automation expert at Associated today!

The Associated Fort Wayne service area includes Fort Wayne, Gary, South Bend, Hammond, Elkart, Shipshewana, Angola, Auburn, Merriville, Valparaiso, Plymouth, Warsaw, Columbia City, New Haven, Huntington, Wabash, Marion and all surrounding areas.

Associated | Fort Wayne Material Handling Equipment Supplier

4310 Illinois Rd Unit 1517
Fort Wayne, IN 46804
(260) 482-9556