Information briefs for the week check out Booktopia’s warehouse bots, Omron’s OMM at Pack Expo, Schnuck’s chain-wide stock staff, pipetting biolab robots, cobots & AI reconstruct rubble from Pompeii, plus LionsBot’s new strategy to “staff” clear.
Booktopia’s warehouse robots enhance effectivity and stock area
Booktopia, Australia’s largest on-line ebook retailer ($123 million annual income) has deployed Shenzhen-based HAI Robotics’ HAIPICK robots to deal with packing and to dispatch orders at its distribution heart (150,000 sq. ft).
The 17-year-old bookseller is a rise of 25 p.c in stock and quicker choose and supply instances for its $3.3 million funding in HAI Robotics’ case-to-person piece-picking system.
“The expertise, which went reside in November, will allow Booktopia to ultimately enhance its distribution capability from 30,000 books a day to 60,000 and reap the benefits of the shift to on-line ebook shopping for, which accelerated throughout the pandemic,” reported The Australian Monetary Evaluate.
The HAI Robotics’ answer differs from an ordinary autonomous cellular robotic (AMR) answer “in that the robots use a telescopic fork that stretches 13 ft excessive. This provides the robots the power to hold cartons in addition to particular person totes and to carry a number of instances to pickers or conveyors in a single motion” (see video).
Richie Chen, founder & CEO of HAI Robotics (2015), says his firm has deployed what he calls “Subsequent-Gen Warehouse Automation” methods to almost 200 prospects.
Third time’s the attraction for Omron at Pack Expo 2021
Omron has been working laborious getting its TM cobot arm atop a cellular robotic. Twice earlier than at Pack Expo, Omron confirmed off a cobot atop what seemed like a steamer trunk (2018), then switched out the arm for its newly launched TM cobot (2019), and now for 2021, Omron’s lastly acquired a smooth, new, purposeful pairing of its TM arm aboard its LD autonomous cellular robotic (AMR). Omron tabs the brand new duo because it’s Omron Cellular Manipulator.
With cobot arms going cellular in a rush as of late, there’s a large e-commerce and normal provide chain want for them that has distributors scrambling. Omron is within the recreation with a high quality cellular duo (see video). There’s even an LD AMR (with out the TM arm) tricked out as a Robotic Greeter at this 12 months’s Pack Expo’s Robotics Zone.
Plainly Omron’s timing couldn’t be higher. In keeping with Transparency Market Analysis, “The cellular cobots market [cobot arm plus AMR], which is present process the preliminary stage of its improvement…is projected to achieve a worth of $4.4 billion by 2026 up from $336 million in 2017.”
Grocer’s world first: Full-time stock robots!
It’s occurred to most of us at one time or one other: a fast journey to the grocery store for just some gadgets is marred once we discover many or most are disappointingly out of inventory. Particularly those you actually wished and wanted. Rattling!
Appears people aren’t excellent at maintaining out-of-stock gadgets at all times replenished. KPMG’s Eugene Kublanov, a advisor in procurement and enterprise providers remarks: “Shops now depend on hourly workers to handle and monitor stock. The work is tedious and infrequently results in errors.”
Out-of-stock gadgets are shockingly costly: IHL Group places the worldwide tab for out-of-stock gadgets at $1 trillion yearly.
Enter, stock robots.
The Schnuck’s grocery chain, after experimenting with Simbe Robotics’ Tally since 2018, is taking the stock robots on full time. “Schnuck Markets, Inc. introduced an industry-first chainwide enlargement with Simbe Robotics to additional elevate the grocery store’s enterprise operations and buyer expertise.
“Constructing on earlier profitable expansions, the multi-year, full-scale roll-out will carry Tally robots to all 111 Schnucks places throughout the U.S., making Schnuck Markets the primary grocer on the earth to make the most of AI-powered stock administration expertise at scale.”
Cobot & AI to piece collectively historic historical past
Roman mosaics and frescoes from Pompeii, crushed into rubble by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79AD, will quickly be pieced collectively by a cobot and AI/ML
An EU-funded undertaking titled RePAIR, Reconstructing the Previous: Synthetic Intelligence and Robotics, might be skilled to jigsaw-puzzle again collectively once more tens of 1000’s of small fragments heretofore deemed too small, too complicated and too time-consuming for people.
Machines outfitted with robotic arms are in a position to scan archaeological fragments, create a 3D digital mannequin and arrange the 1000’s of items into place.
The preliminary, funded experiment will first restore ceiling frescoes from Pompeii’s Home of the Painters at Work, “which weren’t solely broken by the ash and pyroclastic move from Vesuvius but additionally bombed throughout World Conflict II.”
If profitable, the cobot & AI/ML duo could have launched a brand new {industry} of restoration that would nicely be put to piecing collectively, not solely historic archeological websites, however any undertaking the place complexity and time are prohibitive for human intervention.
New greatest pal in bio labs: Pipetting robotic
Pharma and med techs know firsthand all of the drudgery there may be to working in a bio laboratory. High of their drudgery listing: Pipetting!
“It’s estimated that half of medical lab technicians perform the identical arm actions for at the least 1 / 4 of their working day. Guide pipetting is a big a part of liquid dealing with in any laboratory, and it brings hours of repetitive work in mounted positions. This may end up in bodily pressure to the shoulders, arms and fingers.”
As well as, research have proven that poor or no coaching for pipette customers is answerable for about 70 p.c of all pipetting errors.
So, if lab techs dislike pipetting, and if pipetting creates bodily pressure and is answerable for lab errors, then why not get a robotic to do the work? Sadly, till now, there wasn’t such a robotic obtainable anyplace.
Due to Denmark-based Stream Robotics, lab techs have a brand new greatest pal: The flowbot ONE.
The flowbot ONE automated liquid dealing with robots doesn’t require superior programming abilities so nearly anybody can arrange a process. The robotic additionally has the power to combine to gadgets positioned on the deck or exterior to the system. It additionally helps the import and export of information.
First-ever cleansing robots that work as a staff
Professor Mohan Rajesh Elara, a robotics/AI skilled from the Singapore College, along with “Singaporean entrepreneurs: Dylan Ng and Michelle Seow, the husband-and-wife staff behind Singapore’s main cleansing gear and chemical compounds provider, SuperSteam Asia Pacific,” co-founded LionsBot in 2018, and now have launched the LeoBots line of economic cleansing robots.
At the moment, simply three quick years later, the LeoBot line has grown to 5: LeoScrub, LeoVac, LeoMop, LeoRay (COVID ultraviolet bot), and LeoPull (see video that exhibits every in motion).
In contrast to different automated cleansing merchandise, Lionsbot robots function both as standalone items or alternatively in fully-coordinated, fully-autonomous groups for enhanced productiveness and improved cleansing outcomes.
“Complete ‘robo-teams’ will be deployed to designated areas to scrub in unison and with minimal human intervention. To optimize cleansing plans, LionsBot robots collaborate with one another utilizing AI and large information analytics.
“Day-to-day operations are solely managed and coordinated from the Cloud. Recharging, rinsing, refilling, service and upkeep are achieved by way of space-saving docking stations and distant service modules.”
LionsBot have to be doing one thing proper: the LeoBots line was awarded the distinguished Amsterdam Innovation Award in 2020, the primary Asian firm to win this coveted prize.