all along, manyrobotCompanies are committed to developing warehouse robots that automatically transport goods, such as ClearPath, Fetch, and Locus Robotics. They all agree that the most difficult part of this field is how to make robots have the ability to intelligently select goods. Not long ago, a German company called Magazino announced that they have built a mobile warehouse robot called TORU, which can not only transport goods, but also sort items directly from the shelves, which greatly reduces the number of people in the warehouse. Moves around and relieves employees of the workload of sorting items, and it is even better than Amazon warehouse robots that can only lock the position of items and move entire stacks of shelves – with visual navigation, simple operation, and human collaboration .
Frederik Branter, president and co-founder of Magazino, claims that they developed TORU to allow it to move freely between shelves in an extremely uncertain work environment, supplementing regular manpower. In each warehouse where TORU operates, Magazino employees create a 3D model. Once the three-dimensional map is ready, the TORU robot will shuttle through the warehouse, using two laser sensors to scan the environment about 15 centimeters above the ground, creating a two-dimensional map that can help it detect its surroundings and infer where it is. During the operation of TORU, it can identify the wall, shelf column and human legs by analyzing the time when the laser returns to the sensor; at the same time, the analysis data will be shared with other TORU robots working in the same warehouse. In the process of smoothly identifying objects and barriers, TORU does not need the assistance of a large control arm, nor does it require special guide lights and reflected light to indicate the direction, which can be described as its two major advantages.
TORU operates in common racks, boxes, grabs and moves up to 8 shoebox-sized boxes at a time, and delivers them to designated locations or replace them as needed. In fact, Magazino makes three different sizes of TORU robots, which are responsible for grasping different items. The TORU Cube is used to grab rectangular objects, the TORU Box i is best at grabbing standard containers, boxes or plates, and the TORU Flex is capable of grabbing irregularly shaped objects, such as taking a teddy bear out of a box of teddy bears.
In addition to teddy bears, TORU is also capable of handling some novelty and skewed items. When it walks to the target shelf, it can use lasers and cameras to detect the item it wants and determine its location on the shelf, and collect data about how the gripper should grab the item. Once it has acquired an item, it will store it on the internal shelf.
Magazino says TORU will play a huge role in e-commerce warehouses where employees are required to pick up items from orders. In addition, TORU robots are very good at handling orders involving a variety of goods. For example, for an order containing four kinds of goods, TORU can go to four shelves in turn, and deliver all the goods to the transport station at one time, and there is no need to move the shelves back. in place.
Currently, three TORU robots have been delivered to the Fiege Mega Center in Erfurt and put into use. The company’s CEO Jens Fiege was very surprised by TORU’s super performance and amazing performance: “Magazino’s robots have made our warehouse more digital, and I believe that Robotics will greatly contribute to the development of the company’s internal logistics system applications. contribution.”
Willy Shih, a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School who specialises in technology and operations management, also noted that he appreciates TORU’s role as a human sorter: “It uses a more powerful tool than Amazon’s robots in judging how to grab items and how to grab them successfully. With more sensing and analytics, I think TORU will take the stress off the warehouse staff because it doesn’t need to move the shelves during operations.”
promoteindustryThe best way to develop is to face the uncertainty of the future with an open mind and always keep looking forward to the future. In any case, TORU should be a good bargaining chip.
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