Modex Wrap Up: The robots are here …. now what?

Modex always delivers innovative new products, but at this year’s event, robotics captured much of the attention, from prominent mention in MHI’s industry report keynote, to new robotics vendors on the exhibit floor.

Robots in distribution centers (DCs) aren’t new, but new vendors are coming on the scene, touting “mobile autonomous” technology, meaning that you don’t need to install special infrastructure on floors or ceilings for the robots to be able to navigate. One new example along these lines is IAM Robotics, which can pick from existing rack and shelves using onboard 3D vision technology, as written about in our Show Daily coverage.
 
During Wednesday morning’s keynote presentation discussing MHI’s annual industry survey, the panelists repeatedly mentioned robotics as a technology that can help companies deal with business challenges, including the inability to find enough skilled workers, rising pay rates, and continuous pressure from customers to keep costs low and delivery turnaround fast.

So what are we to make of all this attention on robots at Modex? Are we at the crest of the usual hype cycle, focusing on robots because they are fun to talk and write about, but not likely to see much use anytime soon?

I believe serious uptake for robots will happen rapidly in DCs, mainly because of the increasing labor pinch. As one keynote panelist, Todd Farwell, global resource deployment champion with Caterpillar, put it, simply adding more human labor to mounting operational pressures won’t cut it. “We are really going to have to automate and use robotics, because if we try to do this in a warehouse-type setting with manual labor, it’s going to take a legion of people,” he said.

In MHI’s industry report there are seven other technologies besides robotics seen as addressing what MHI calls the “always on” supply chain, including sensors and predictive analytics. Robots gained in perceived impact in the survey at the heart of the annual study, which this year, drew more than 900 responses. When asked which technologies can be either a source of disruption or competitive advantage, over half (51 percent) of respondents said robotics and automation will bring such impacts, up from 39 percent last year.

In short, the question really isn’t whether or not the robots are coming, because they’re here. The questions now turn to how to leverage robots. How can we integrate them with existing systems, or use them effectively alongside existing assets and resources, including human labor?

At the Modex panel discussion, Farwell said Caterpillar is experimenting with what it calls “cobots,” which stands for collaborative robots. As one might guess, a cobot is a type of robot that can work collaboratively with people. Farwell says robots are well suited to tasks that are “dirty, dangerous, or demoralizing’ for human labor.

One final thought on the rise of robots for the DC. They typically have their own software, but to be coordinated alongside existing assets, the software for the robots likely will need to integrate with warehouse control and warehouse management systems (WCS) software. Going forward, the advance of robotics for the DC is going to further accelerate interest in WCS, or what some vendors term warehouse execution system (WES) software, which happened to be another hot topic at Modex.

This connection between WCS and robotics was made clear to me at a Monday evening event during Modex put on by Fortna, a consulting and engineering firm that has a WCS solution. Their event—under the theme “See the Future”—featured short presentations from about a dozen startups. Robotics vendors were well represented, including IAM Robotics and three other Modex exhibitors, Clearpath Robotics, Locus Robotics, and Six River Systems, as well as Bionic Hive and Righthand Robotics. Fortna brought in these vendors to meet a few Modex attendees and press because they see their technologies as potentially transformative to DC and logistics operations.

Certainly, for robotics to catch on big in cost-conscious DC operations, it’s going to take careful thinking about how to blend what the robots can do with existing automated systems, human labor, and material flow. Mobile autonomous robots for DCs are here, but they won’t come with a C-3PO-like “integrator” robot to blend them into warehouses for us. That will still be up to people in industry, alongside integrators, consultants, and the robotics providers. It’s those “now what?” questions about the integration of robots, and how and where to best use them, that need attention going forward.