Imagine slashing your warehouse labor expenses 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 metrics on every aspect of your material handling operation. Warehouse robotics systems can help you transform your business, slashing costs, boosting productivity and enhancing performance.

Types of Warehouse Robots

While some types of warehouse robotics systems have been around for many years, others are bleeding edge engineering marvels that may disrupt the warehousing and distribution 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 commonly applied to receiving tasks, such as relocating items from pallets to shelving, or in production scenarios, for picking and packing.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Unmanned aerial vehicles, more commonly referred to as drones, can maintain live inventory data within warehouses by leveraging RFID technology.

Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (AS/RS) : AS/RS can pick up goods from racks and return items to their correct 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): In lieu of using humans to pick items from racks and bins, G2P solutions employ robots to dispense products to picking stations, where workers are stationed to fulfill orders as items are delivered.

Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) : AGVs, including self-driving carts, pallet jacks or forklifts, transport goods from one area to another within a warehouse. Cart based AGVs are often known as Automatic Guided Carts, or AGCs.

Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) : Similar to AGVs and AGCs, AMRs can transfer products across a facility autonomously. Unlike AGCs and AGVs, which travel predetermined paths often directed by magnetic strips or wire tracks, AMRs rely on cameras, maps and sensors to navigate frequently changing routes by evaluating their environment.

Applications For Warehouse Robots

In the past, robotic applications in distribution centers and warehouses, warehouses and distribution centers were restricted to a small number of functions. As technology has improved, robotic capabilities have exploded and they can now be used for nearly any requirement in a warehouse:

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

Palletizing and de-palletizing: Robotic systems are ideal for tedious, recurrent work like palletizing. Palletizizing robots normally use a specific End-of-Arm Tool to collect items and set them on a pallet. They're often paired with conveyors that transport items to the palletizing area.

Sorting: Robotic sortation systems must have the ability to grab items, identify them and place them in an appropriate bin or storage slot. As products pass by on a conveyor, these robots use cameras to identify individual items and pick them out.

Picking: A considerable portion of the workforce costs in a warehouse originate from order picking functions, and robotic picking solutions have been around for many years to help address this concern. However, modern robotic picking technologies offer greater speed, improved accuracy, enhanced efficiency and superior value as compared to systems of even a few years ago.

Packaging: Robotic solutions are perfect for repetitious and monotonous tasks like packaging. They can also be used for more advanced tasks like dimensioning, weighing and cartonizing.

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

Storage: AS/RS solutions emoby many types of warehouse robots, including mini-load systems, cranes and pallet shuttles. AS/RS is also sometimes used in conjunction with mobile racking systems to make the most of storage density.

Delivery: Large e-com businesses are experimenting with self-driving trucks, autonomous delivery drones and other technologies that will fundamentally change home and warehouse delivery options in the coming years.

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

Industrial Robotics Companies Near Me

If would would like to learn more about industrial robotic solutions for your warehouse, call an automation expert at Raymond West today!

Raymond West's Santa Clarita / Valencia facility serves the northern region of Los Angeles County and the San Fernando Valley, including Valencia, Santa Clarita, San Fernando, Sylmar, Sun Valley, Reseda, Canoga Park, Van Nuys, North Hollywood, Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena, Hollywood and all surrounding areas.

Raymond West | Santa Clarita / San Fernando Valley Material Handling Equipment Supplier

28303 Industry Dr
Valencia, CA 91355
(661) 206-0462