Imagine reducing your warehouse labor expenditures by nearly half, adding 24 x 7 shifts that could potentially double your productivity and having access to troves of up to the minute information on all aspects of your operation. Warehouse robotics systems can help you transform your business, lowering expenditures, increasing productivity and enhancing efficiency.

Types of Warehouse Robots

Although a handful of warehouse robotics technologies have been available for many years, others are state-of-the-art solutions that could possibly fundamentally change the warehousing industry as we know it. The principal classifications of robotics system are:

Articulated Robotic Arms: Robotic arms with multiple joints can lift and move products in a warehouse. They're typically applied to receiving tasks, like moving products from pallets to racks, or in production environments, for picking and packing.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Unmanned aerial vehicles, conventionally know as drones, can deliver instantaneous inventory data within warehouses by using RFID technology.

Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (AS/RS) : AS/RS can retrieve inventory from shelves and return items to their designated storage positions. 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): Rather than using people to pick items from bins and racks, G2P technology uses robots to dispense items to picking stations, where operators are positioned to complete orders as products are delivered.

Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) : AGVs, such as self-driving carts, pallet jacks or forklifts, move products from one location to another within a warehouse. Cart based AGVs are commonly called Automatic Guided Carts, or AGCs.

Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) : Similar to AGVs and AGCs, Autonomous Mobile Robots can move products throughout a warehouse autonomously. Unlike AGCs and AGVs, which move along stationary routes often directed by magnetic strips or wire tracks, AMRs rely on cameras, maps and sensors to navigate non-static routes by evaluating their environment.

Applications For Warehouse Robots

For many years, robotic applications in warehouses were limited to a small number of jobs. As technology has evolved, robotic capabilities have flourished and they can now be used for almost any requirement in a warehouse:

Loading and unloading: Although total automation of unloading and loading trucks is not yet a realistic possibility, automated systems like AGVs and conveyors can be added to optimize your loading dock operations.

Palletizing and de-palletizing: Robotic systems are well suited for tedious, repetitious work like palletizing. These types of robots normally employ a special End-of-Arm Tool to pick up items and position them on a pallet. They're commonly paired with conveyor systems that supply products to the palletizing area.

Sorting: Robotic sortation systems must have the ability to pick up objects, recognize them and deposit them in an appropriate bin or storage slot. As goods pass by on a conveyor, these robots use cameras to track specific items and select them.

Picking: A considerable portion of the workforce costs in a warehouse come from order picking activities, and robotic picking solutions have been around for decades to help resolve this problem. Nevertheless, modern robotic picking technologies offer increased speed, better accuracy, more efficiency and far better value versus systems of even a few years ago.

Packaging: Robotic solutions are well suited for recurrent and tedious jobs like packaging. They can also be put to use for more complicated tasks like dimensioning, weighing and cartonizing.

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

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

Delivery: Major e-com companies are conducting research on self-driving trucks, autonomous delivery drones and other technologies that will transform home and warehouse delivery options in the near future.

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

Industrial Robotics Companies Near Me

To find out more about industrial robotic solutions for your operation, speak with an automation expert at Raymond West today!

Raymond West's Nogales facility serves Santa Cruz County and Pima County, including Nogales, Patagonia, Tucson, South Tucson, Marana, Oro Valley, Sahuarita and surrounding areas

Raymond West | Nogales Material Handling Equipment Supplier

480 N Mariposa Rd C
Nogales, AZ 85621
(520) 281-4125