Japanese multinational sports performance brand Asics will use Magazino’s Toru mobile picking robot at its European Distribution Center (EDC) in Krefeld, Germany.
According to Magazino, the robots will be integrated into the existing warehouse environment in Krefeld without any modifications required.
Using a vacuum gripper, Toru grasps individual shoe boxes from the shelving system, transports them to the handover station and also stows returns.
Magazino said this will relieve EDC employees of less ergonomic tasks, such as picking from the bottom or top shelf and walking long distances in the warehouse.
Michael Gryszko-Prattes, head of the EDC at ASICS, said: “With the Magazino robots, we can not only cover the increasing order volume better and ensure our flexibility in automation, but also support our EDC staff in the fast storage and retrieval of orders — especially for very small orders.
“We also see the Toru robot as an opportunity to become even better in terms of speed, quality assurance, same-day order processing and overnight picking.”
The robots, which work autonomously via 3D camera technology, numerous sensors, perceive their environment in real time and detect people or obstacles in their path to operate safely alongside humans.
With up to 18 hours of operating time, Toru can operate at night or outside core working hours.
Each robot is connected to Asics’ warehouse management system via Wi-Fi, as well as to a local and global cloud from Magazino.
With this connection and the use of AI, Toru will reportedly learn from its experiences, improve its own performance and robustness and share acquired knowledge with its robot colleagues in the fleet.
The Magazino robots are already in operation at several customers in Germany and Europe, including logistics service provider Fiege Logistics and online platform Zalando.
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