What if you could reduce your warehouse human resource expenditures by nearly half, add 24 x 7 shifts that could potentially double your productivity and have instant availability to troves of real-time metrics on all aspects of your material handling operation? Warehouse robotics systems can help you redefine your business, reducing costs, boosting productivity and amplifying profitability.

Types of Warehouse Robots

Although a handful of warehouse robotics solutions have been around for a very long time, others are bleeding edge engineering marvels that could possibly disrupt the warehousing industry as we know it. The primary classifications of robotics system are:

Articulated Robotic Arms: Robotic arms with multiple joints can lift and move goods in a warehouse. They're commonly applied to receiving operations, such as moving products from pallets to racking, or in production scenarios, for picking and packing.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Unmanned aerial vehicles, more frequently referred to as drones, can deliver real-time inventory visibility within warehouses through the use of RFID technology.

Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (AS/RS) : AS/RS can pick up products from shelves and deposit products in their designated storage locations. Examples of AS/RS solutions are pallet shuttle systems, unit load cranes and horizontal or vertical carousel systems.

Goods-to-Person technology (G2P): In place of using humans to pick items from storage locations, G2P systems use robots to dispense products to picking stations, where operators are stationed to fulfill orders as items are delivered.

Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) : AGVs, such as self-driving pallet jacks, forklift or carts, transport goods from one area to another inside a warehouse. Cart based AGVs are commonly referred to as Automatic Guided Carts, or AGCs.

Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) : Similar to AGVs and AGCs, AMRs can transfer items across a warehouse autonomously. Unlike AGCs and AGVs, which travel stationary paths often controlled by wire tracks or magnetic strips, AMRs make use of cameras, maps and sensors to negotiate non-static routes by evaluating their environment.

Applications For Warehouse Robots

Until recently, robotic applications in distribution centers and warehouses, warehouses and distribution centers were limited to a small number of functions. As technology has improved, robotic capabilities have flourished and they can now be used for nearly any function in a warehouse:

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

Palletizing and de-palletizing: Robotic systems are well suited for monotonous, repetitious functions like palletizing. Palletizizing robots normally use a specific End-of-Arm Tool to collect units and set them on a pallet. They're often paired with conveyor systems that feed items to the palletizing area.

Sorting: Robotic sortation systems must be able to pick up products, identify them and put them in the proper storage slot or bin. As products pass by on a conveyor, these systems use cameras to recognize individual items and select them.

Picking: Most of the human labor expenses in a warehouse come from order picking activities, and robotic picking solutions have been around for many years to help address this problem. Nevertheless, modern robotic picking systems offer increased speed, improved accuracy, enhanced efficiency and far better value versus systems of just a few years ago.

Packaging: Robotic solutions are ideal for repetitious and monotonous jobs like packaging. They can also be used for more complex jobs like dimensioning, weighing and cartonizing.

Transportation: Robotic transportation systems have wide-scale use in warehouses, from simple AGCs/AGVs to AMRs and conveyor systems that are integrated with AS/RS.

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

Delivery: Leading e-com businesses are testing self-driving trucks, autonomous delivery drones and other emerging tech that will fundamentally change home and warehouse delivery options in the near future.

Replenishment: Using RFID to keep track of inventory, warehouse drones can survey barcode labels in half the time of manual scanning and relay inventory information back to the WMS instantaneously.

Industrial Robotics Companies Near Me

If you're interested in learning more about industrial robotic solutions for your business, talk to an automation expert at Raymond West today!

Raymond West's Phoenix facility serves the entire Phoenix Metro area, including Phoenix, Tempe, Mesa, Gilbert, Chandler, Scottsdale, Glendale, Goodyear, Tolleson, Peoria and all surrounding areas.

Raymond West | Phoenix Material Handling Equipment Supplier

2659 E Magnolia St
Phoenix, AZ 85034
(602) 275-2228