Recently, in an interview with Bob Bowman, editor in chief of supplychainbrain magazine, Dr. Thomas Evan of Honeywell was asked how the intelligent flexible destacker solution created by Honeywell robotics company can meet the challenges from specific supply chains. The answer is simple: the recent global pandemic has exacerbated labour shortages.
He said that although we can choose many tasks of the distribution center (DC) to achieve automation, we attach great importance to the unloading work, because it is a labor-intensive, highly repetitive and easily injured work, and it is also one of the most difficult types of work to retain workers. In short, this condition is one of the boring, dirty and dangerous jobs most suitable for robots - a job that scarce human workers are willing to give up and choose less laborious and more satisfactory tasks.
Honeywell is also open to the challenge of dealing with one of the traditionally difficult tasks in the field of distribution centers and warehouses. Due to the advances in computer vision, robot control and machine learning technology, Honeywell has developed a solution to meet the requirements of complex decision-making, throughput and efficiency, and handle the pallets of single or mixed SKUs in any mode or sequence.
But we are not satisfied with only solving a long-standing industry problem. We have also designed an intelligent flexible destacker to optimize DC operation in various possible ways. The benefits are as follows:
● where possible, increase throughput by picking multiple items at the same time.
● automatically increase throughput when handling consistent layers or pallets.
● when the number of layers above 72 inches is consistent with the SKU, handle pallets up to 8 feet without expensive pallet lifting devices.
● automatically adjust the speed to ensure safe handling of items under 80 pounds without pre programming or sacrificing performance.
● automatically adjust the height to optimize speed and motion path.
● box landing detection to determine when the robot can safely take down the box on the ground, so as to reduce the interruption of operation time when handling unstable pallets..
● automatically detect and handle the sliding plate.
● identify empty trays and signal replacement through automatic tray feeding system, autonomous mobile robot (AMR) or manual operation.
● a variety of flexible configurations, coupled with a range of supporting automation options, make it easy for the automatic destacker to integrate seamlessly with your existing workflow..
In order to obtain maximum flexibility in the minimum space, the destacking robot can work with the AMR of pallet conveying, as we recently demonstrated at the booth of modex 2022. This allows the system to operate continuously and provide flexibility. Pallets and empty piles can be placed almost anywhere the robot can travel.
The intelligent flexible destacker provided by Honeywell intelligence is a complete turnkey system, including security risk assessment for all deployments. Alternative financing options can reduce your capital expenditure and other entry barriers, while giving you more ways to control costs.
