Lucas Systems, provider of voice and warehouse optimisation software for fulfilment and distribution centres, has announced a partnership with Silicon Valley-based Fetch Robotics, to improve collaboration between warehouse workers and robots.
Through the partnership, Lucas and Fetch will offer tailored solutions to orchestrate and optimise how warehouse workers interact in harmony with Fetch’s autonomous mobile robots (AMRs).
“The future environment of warehouses and distribution centres will be a mix of people, robots, machines, and systems all working together. The precise orchestration of all the pieces will be key to achieving a competitive advantage in performance,” said Ken Ramoutar, chief marketing officer at Lucas Systems.
The combined solutions from Fetch and Lucas will materially redistribute the division of labour in the warehouse. Robots will manage tasks best suited for machines, and this will free up warehouse workers to focus on higher-valued work.
In an AMR-supported picking workflow orchestrated by Lucas, for example, a worker can avoid a lot of unnecessary walking by picking items to a tote on a Fetch AMR, directing the AMR to a conveyor system to unload, and then triggering another robot to move into place for the worker to continue picking.
“The combination of Lucas’ AI-based warehouse optimisation software and Fetch’s broad portfolio of AMRs enables optimised order, batch, case, and pallet picking in distribution centres and automates virtually any manual material movement in a facility,” said Stefan Nusser, chief product officer at Fetch Robotics.
“This enables our joint customers to increase picking efficiency, reduce cycle times, and reduce the impact of labour shortages.”
Ramoutar, added: “That intersection of how people and robots work together is a hugely important and often overlooked part of the warehouse automation equation, but it’s where a lot of the unseen value exists.”
