Geekplus Technology Co. today announced that it is collaborating with DHL International GmbH for DHL's Asia-Pacific Innovation Center. Located in Singapore, the center will be home to a “Warehouse of the Future” exhibit that showcases automated and integrated e-commerce offerings, said the companies.
The partners said the project reflects their shared values and will help accelerate innovation and educate supply chain leaders on the opportunities presented by automation.
“This project not only marks a new milestone for the logistics and supply chain industry, but [also] a milestone in the global relationship between Geek+ and DHL that follows a number of successful robot deployments in several of DHLs' warehouses in Asia-Pacific,” stated Hongbo Li, chief technology officer at Geek+. “DHL's Innovation Center will provide an exclusive look at how robotics are already powering the industry’s most efficient warehouses, proving to decision-makers that the future of automation is here today.”
“Customer-centric innovation has a very important place in DHL, and we drive this through close partnerships with leading companies in technology, startups, industry thinkers, and of course our customers,” said YingChuan Huang, innovation manager at DHL's Asia-Pacific Innovation Center. “The Geek+ exhibit is the perfect showcase of how technologies such as AI, computer vision, and robotics are not only converging, but also building off the strengths of each technology to provide even greater value to our customers' supply chains.”
Geek+, OSARO, and Yaskawa team up
The accelerated rise of e-commerce and new challenges posed by the global pandemic have fueled interest in how robotics and articificial intelligence can build operational resilience, said Geek+.
The exhibit at DHL's innovation center will include Geek+'s RoboShuttle tote-picking robots, OSARO Inc.'s vision system, and Yaskawa Motoman collaborative robot arms in fully automated inbound and outbound logistics operations.
Geek+ said RoboShuttle is built on its autonomous mobile robot (AMR) technology. The AMRs can autonomously find and transfer bins of ordered items, reducing manual walking time by 75%, added the Beijing-based company.
The AMRs will work with OSARO’s technology, which can recognized jumbled items, regardless of material alignment, said Geek+. OSARO recently raised $30 million in Series C funding.
“We're excited to showcase the future of logistics robotics – robots working together, with each optimized as part of a complete automation solution,” said Derik Pridmore, CEO of OSARO. “The combination of Geek+'s RoboShuttle and our exceptional OSARO pick-and-place capabilities not only reduces labor-intensive operations but also provides a flexible, scalable solution without fixed infrastructure.”
From goods to person to goods to robots
For order fulfillment, the RoboShuttle will autonomously find the tote containing ordered items, pick the tote, and carry it to a picking station using its fork arms. Once at the picking station, the Motoman HC10DT robot arm will pick items from the tote, pack the order, and prepare it for outbound delivery, said the companies.
Dashboards will display operational performance throughout the entire process, providing visitors with information in real time. This will demonstrate the improvements that automation can bring to logistics operations in terms of efficiency, accuracy, and flexibility, said Geek+.
“Together with OSARO and DHL, we look forward to educating supply chain leaders on the wide range of opportunities that come from combining robotics and AI,” said Lit Fung, vice president of APAC, the U.K., and the Americas at Geek+. “By merging our solutions, we've achieved a new milestone, from goods-to-person to goods-to-robot, delivering flexible, safe, and efficient logistics operations.
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