|
Listen to this text  |
ProMat brings collectively a few of the world’s main manufacturing and provide chain gear suppliers. This 12 months’s present had 1,000-plus exhibitors, and as a first-time attendee, I had loads of robotic methods to study throughout my three days on the present.
Here’s a recap, in no explicit order, of a few of the greatest robots at ProMat 2023.
Agility Robotics’ Digit
The Agility Robotics sales space was packed for many of the present, and for good purpose. It’s not on daily basis you get the chance to see a bipedal robotic in motion. According to Agility, Digit’s demo was based mostly on an actual buyer use case, and it was working throughout all 4 days of the present. Digit was the winner of ProMat’s Best New Innovation Award.
Digit is the product of over 20 years of analysis and growth. While the corporate might have began its journey by numerous use circumstances for a bipedal robotic, something from working into burning buildings to last-mile supply, it honed its deal with automating a course of that must be addressed that Digit can safely and reliably carry out.
Digit at the moment solely works in enclosed areas away from people, and it’ll even shut down when human employees get too shut. The robotic may help cut back employee accidents from lifting or lacerations that may occur when human employees deal with damaged totes.
Agility is gearing as much as begin manufacturing Digit at scale, including it might work at a fee of $10/hour for duties just like the one it demoed at ProMat.
Boston Dynamics’ Stretch
Boston Dynamics confirmed off its Stretch case dealing with robotic on the present. Stretch confirmed off its trailer unloading skills flawlessly, though there wasn’t a lot variability within the bins it was working with.
Stretch is already deployed at buyer websites and has extra prospects lined up. Boston Dynamics appears to have much more formidable plans for the robotic sooner or later. At its sales space, it ran a video the place it confirmed animated Stretch robots zipping round a warehouse, constructing pallets on prime of AMRs which convey these pallets to different Stretch robots that might load the bins right into a truck.
The firm is being held again by security rules proper now, which maintain Stretch caged off and away from people, limiting it to only its present unloading software.
Pickle Robot demoed an analogous container unloading system. It is constructed round a modified Kuka arm and suction grippers to select up objects as much as 65 kilos and place them onto a conveyor. The onboard imaginative and prescient system determines which field to select subsequent. Again, there wasn’t a lot selection within the form and measurement of the bins. Here’s a side-by-side comparability of the Pickle and Boston Dynamics options:
RightHand Robotics’s RightPick
RightHand Robotics wasn’t the one firm exhibiting off bin-picking robots, however its demo was some of the constant and versatile. The total time I used to be at its sales space, and each time I visited it all through the present, RightPick didn’t miss a single decide.
RightHand additionally confirmed a brand new autonomous suction cup swapper. Integrated within the entrance of a demo workcell, the robotic arm can select from 4 totally different suction cups. Due to all the information RightHand has collected through the years, it is aware of which suction cup provides the very best probability at efficiently choosing an merchandise. When the system has low confidence in a suction cup’s capability to know upcoming gadgets, it is going to autonomously swap out for the suction cup that gives probably the most confidence. RightPick’s grippers use a mix of suction and three mechanical fingers to provide the system additional stability in all of its picks.
Brightpick’s Autopicker
Autopicker was introduced in February 2023, and it was thrilling to see it at work in particular person for the primary time. Brightpick’s Autopicker strikes round warehouses, retrieving totes from shelving and robotically choosing gadgets from these totes to consolidate orders immediately in aisles. This course of removes the necessity for a human picker to take gadgets out of totes, a typical a part of many comparable robotic methods.
At ProMat, Autopicker was choosing snacks for attendees. At the present, it was solely pulling totes from one facet of the robotic. But the model that can work in buyer warehouses can pull from either side, permitting it to roll between shelving and change between pulling totes from behind or in entrance of the robotic.
Mujin’s TruckBot
Truck unloading was a preferred demo at ProMat, and Mujin took a extra distinctive method to the method. According to the corporate, the robotic can unload as much as 1,000 circumstances per hour.
TruckBot’s design goals to particularly deal with the challenges that come particularly with unloading floor-loaded trailers and containers. The robotic can connect to straightforward telescoping conveyors, that are discovered at many loading docks, and might attain as much as 52 toes right into a trailer truck or delivery container.
At ProMat, TruckBot was working with Mujin’s palletizing robotic to kind circumstances onto pallets for storage.
Tuskrobots’ autonomous pallet handler
Autonomous forklifts have been one other frequent look on the present, however Tuskrobots had probably the most distinctive method to shifting pallets. Instead of the standard automated forklift design, Tuskrobots’ autonomous pallet handler slides two prongs beneath a pallet and makes use of the tongs to elevate the pallet. The remainder of the AMR then slides beneath the pallet.
Once the pallet is on prime of the AMR, it will probably drive to its subsequent location, the place it lifts it once more, slides out from beneath the pallet, lowers the pallet, after which slides its prongs again into the AMR. This distinctive methodology of choosing up pallets means the robotic is simply barely bigger than its payload, permitting it to function in high-density storage areas.
Verve Motion’s SafeLift Suit
Verve Motion spun out of Harvard in 2020 and provides an exosuit that goals to take 40% of the pressure off of employees throughout lifting. While the exosuit can enhance productiveness by serving to employees maintain a constant tempo throughout their total shift, the firm’s purpose is to make workplaces safer for employees and to scale back on-the-job accidents.
When we have been on the sales space, Home Depot was demoing the system, repeatedly lifting a packed tote and case of water. The retailer stated they’ve staff who repeatedly elevate masses as much as 75 lbs from the ground onto a pallet every day.
I had the chance to check out the exosuit myself. It took simply minutes to placed on and was simple to regulate. When choosing up and placing down a heavy tote, it offers a tug throughout the again that reduces the quantity of pressure your again has to do. The go well with at ProMat had three settings: impartial setting, lifting solely and lifting and placing down. Users can change between the modes by urgent a button close to their shoulder. These settings could be personalized in keeping with a buyer’s want.
Slip Robotics AMR
Slip Robotics showcased its automated trailer loading/unloading system (ATLS). The omnidirectional robotic is designed to hold as much as 8 full pallets and a complete of 6 tons. It autonomously drives right into a tractor-trailer for transport to the following vacation spot. Three ATLS robots can match inside a typical tractor-trailer.
Fork truck operators don’t have to enter the trailer and as an alternative load and unload pallets onto the Slip ATLS within the open loading dock. The Slip ATLS travels with the load to the vacation spot, the place it drives off the trailer, onto the dock for unloading and loading. A loaded set of ATLS robots would then drive onto the trailer for rapid departure. Slip stated its robots use a sealed lead acid battery that isn’t topic to federal hazmat restrictions for floor transport.