It’s peak season for the movement of pallets all over the world.
A Vecna Robotics’ AMR moves heavy payloads through a warehouse.
And while most of this activity still gets carried out by humans driving forklifts, there is, at last, some evidence of more meaningful take-up of advanced warehouse automation technology, particularly the use of Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs).
These are robots designed to grab, haul and store pallets to/from loading docks.
As a sub-category, AMRs dominate the warehouse automation market which could exceed $40 billion within the next half-decade, with an expected compound annual growth rate of 15%, according to a recent report from LogisticsIQ.
One trusted industry expert, citing worldwide robot sales statistics culled from a variety of sources, and focusing on the warehouse sector, asserts that in 2020 there were roughly 60,000 orders for warehouse-ready robots and that about 75% were for AMRs; in 2021, these orders jumped to 100,000, with AMRs representing 80% of them.
The U.S. accounts for about one-third of these robot orders. Projections for 2022 suggest that when all is said and done a warehouse mobile robot growth rate of at least 30% (over 2021) will have been recorded. This trusted but not named industry source’s estimates are borne out anecdotally.
“We’ve booked 20-vehicle orders for next year,” said Craig Malloy, CEO of Waltham, Mass.-based Vecna Robotics.
Up until the past year, most companies, including third-party logistics providers, were testing out a few AMRs at one site, getting comfortable in what Malloy described as “trial program purgatory.”
Challenges associated with and brought about by the pandemic, such as a spike in e-commerce activity and labor shortages, have created supply chain bottlenecks coming and going, forcing logistics operators to accelerate the pace of automation inside distribution hubs over the past two years.
“Now we have multiple customers running ten or more vehicles and looking to enlarge those fleets,” Vecna’s Malloy said.
As many as 200 companies, globally, manufacture AMRs. These types of robots are not to be confused the AMR predecessor, Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs), a category referring to robots that move pallets of goods along a pre-defined path and require operator oversight.
Neither AGVs nor AMRs are to be confused with self-driving forklifts which are traditional vehicles retrofitted with software that can make run them autonomously. Although AGVs and AMRs both do resemble self-driving forklifts, AMRs, for their part, tote things on a whole other level – using sophisticated sensors, artificial intelligence, machine learning and computerized pathway planning techniques to navigate their environment, unbound to a fixed track.
AMRs are equipped with cameras and sensors such that if they experience an unexpected obstacle in their way they can slow, stop or reroute and carry onward.
Starting in 2020, GEODIS, a global supply chain operator, enhanced the process of picking up, delivering and putting away materials at one of its busiest distribution centers in Dallas. GEODIS deployed a fleet comprising several of Vecna’s automated pallet trucks (APTs), a type of AMR, as well as a software-run fleet orchestration system, said its VP of engineering, Eric Douglas.
Vecna’s AMRs at GEODIS do several key tasks. They clear designated dock doors and bring pallets to pick and drop spots (or “P&Ds”) throughout their different facilities to increase inbound throughput and “dock-to-stock” time, working alongside forklift drivers. By using the AMRs to eliminate horizontal travel and reduce trips to the dock, productivity has improved by approximately 30%.
“GEODIS has since expanded the solution to other facilities and continue to work with Vecna on new opportunities,” a Vecna spokesman said.
Meanwhile, XPO Logistics
The facility, located at the Segro East Midlands Gateway, a rail hub in Leicestershire, has been dubbed the “Digital Distribution Warehouse of the Future.” It was designed from scratch to distribute Nestlé Products using sophisticated robotics, automated sorting systems and XPO’s intelligent analytics.
Tiger Global Management recently made a bet on warehouse automation — leading a $65 million Series C round for Vecna.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/richblake1/2022/12/16/as-supply-chain-bogs-down-autonomous-mobile-robot-sales-trend-up/