The state of robotics

 The state of robotics

That’s the first industry event where I saw what we now call autonomous mobile robots (AMR); more importantly, these were robots targeting warehousing and distribution. The exhibitors were Kiva Systems, now part of Amazon; RMT Robotics, now part of Cimcorp; and Seegrid. Each had relatively small booths where their vehicles moved around the space on their own like over-sized toys. While ProMat 2005 was all about RFID, AMRs were the hit of the 2007 show. Here’s what I wrote at the time:To get more news about Robotics as a Service, you can visit glprobotics.com official website.

“In 2007, RMT Robotics, Kiva Systems and Seegrid introduced mobile robots to the industry. They were to AGVs what go-karts are to Formula 1 race cars: small vehicles designed to move small loads. But what really distinguished them is that they had unique guidance systems that didn’t require fixed paths, such as magnetic tape on the floor or reflectors and lasers, to find their way around the facility. Instead, they could learn to find their way to almost any spot in a facility. Like ATLs (autonomous truck loading vehicles), they were the buzz of the show, even if no one quite knew what to do with them.”

Well, someone knew what to do with them. In 2010, RMT was acquired by Cimcorp. Then, in 2012, Amazon broke the bank, paying nearly $800 million for Kiva Systems.”
At that time, goods-to-person picking was still a niche segment of the market. The real argument for robotics, I wrote then, wasn’t getting rid of labor, but dealing with a tight labor market. “Warehouses are struggling to keep enough workers to do the job, especially during seasonal and holiday spikes in demand… This is still very much an emerging trend, but it’s a trend that works in [robotics’] favor.”

Fast forward a decade and 2012’s emerging tight labor market is an everyday fact of life for warehouse and distribution center managers. Only now, unlike in 2012, it’s coupled with rapidly rising wages. All of which might explain why you couldn’t walk down an aisle at Modex 2022 without tripping over a robot.

Instead of three small booths, dozens of robotics solution providers exhibited from around the globe. What’s more, every systems integrator worth their salt, regardless of size, had at least one robot on display. In some respects, it was a robotics show.

The other notable trend was the evolution from the point solutions on display at ProMat in 2007 to integrated solutions featuring multiple types of robots, such as a RightHand robot picking items to a Tompkins Robotics T-sort or a Hai Robotics’ case handling robot working in conjunction with a goods-to-person piece-picking station. It’s a whole new way of thinking about robotics in the DC.

Has the market finally figured out what to do with robots? In other words, are end users adopting or planning to adopt, or are they still just trying to understand the technology through small pilots, and taking a wait-and-see attitude toward rolling out projects?
Those were among the questions Modern Materials Handling set out to answer in a survey launched right before Modex. The survey was developed in collaboration with The Robotics Group at MHI and WERC. It was distributed across our respective audiences (see box page 24).

For the purposes of this survey, we divided respondents into three categories: Those with no plans to use robots in the foreseeable future; those end users who are investigating the technology and plan to use it in the next two years; and those early adopters who already have robots up and running in their facilities.