Advanced, state-of-the-art robotic forklifts that can “see” obstacles and use memory and sensory information to find their way around a warehouse floor unaided by humans will be installed at several East Coast distribution centers and factories.
Seegrid Corporation — the Pittsburgh-based manufacturer of automated guided vehicles — announced that it had struck a deal to install the “Robocop” style automated pallet trucks, tow tractors and walkie stackiers in manufacturing and distribution centers owned by Topco Associates, a grocery wholesaler on the East Coast.
Unlike last-generation AGVs, the robots installed in the Topco facilities won’t require laser targets, floor transponders or magnetic tape to find their way around. Instead, they will use a futuristic vision navigation system that actually allows the vehicles to “see” where they are going and to change routes immediately if there is danger of a collision.
Use 3D Grids to “Remember” Where They Are
The robots perceive and navigate using information in three-dimensional evidence grids, according to ArisPlex, a robotics website.
“Evidence grids are 3D models — or maps, if you will — generated using multiple views of a specific environment captured using ranging sensors or 3D cameras,” said ArisPlex analyst Dan Kara in his analysis of the Seegrid/Topco deal. “The Seegrid AGVs create 3D evidence grids during a ‘Walk Through Then Work’ process in which the robots are guided through a facility, capturing information as they go.”
Use What They See to Make Decisions
Not only can the robot forklifts see like humans, they might also be able to think like us as well, according to Kara.
“Much like their human counterparts, the Seegrid AGVs use the generated internal models, along with real-time sensor information captured while moving, to navigagte in dynamic environments,” Kara said.
Seegrid CEO Anthony Horbal said the new AGVs will help reduce costs and improve safety.
“This new strategic partnership wil provide Topco members — who are supermarket retailers, food wholesalers and food service companies — with an innovative vision-guided flexible AGV solution that will immediately deliver cost reductions and create a competitive advantage,” Horbal said in a news release. “Seegrid products help businesses improve throughput and improve workplace and employee safety, while delivering a rapid payback.”
Robots Already Widely Used
Some Topco supermaket customers have already been using Seegrid ATVs in their distribution centers for many years.
Joseph Hurley, vice president of distribution for Giant Eagle, an East Coast grocery chain, said robots have been used for five years at its Pittsburgh distribution center, which services 229 supermarkets and 187 fuel and convenience stores in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Maryland.. The machines offer increased versatility and productivity over human workers.
“Incorporating the Seegrid robots in the retail support center operation has allowed us to improve dock-to-stock speed and productivity,” Hurley said. “By providing a predefined route between pickup and drop locations, it creates a fixed time and space between product/aisle, selector, and robot. The predefined route and volumes bring considerable consistency to our operations. From an efficiency standpoint, we have reduced manned travel from putaway by 20 to 30% and increased hi-lift pallet per hour by 20%. The cost effectiveness that the new system incorporates has allowed us to remain successful in an extremely competitive environment and bring value to our end customers.
Giant Eagle currently is using pallet-handling mobile robots in its 440,000-square-foot food distribution center outside of Pittsburgh. Four double palletrobots, which resemble driver-less forklift truck, handle much of the facility’s putaway operations. Another four mobile robots are being used at a Giant Eagle distribution center in Cleveland, Ohio.
The trucks automatically offload pallets from semi-tractor trailers then move the two at a time to drop-off locations throughout the warehouse. They are fully integrated with the facility’s automated storage and retrieval system, which uses voice-controlled cranes to retrieve pallets from 12,000 separate locations.