Geek+, autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) provider, has introduced its new product portfolio for robotic automation, including the PopPick solution which is designed to tackle issues of picking station efficiency and space.
The new line also includes its RobotShuttle Next Gen – the multi-machine combined high-density solution. It integrates high-density tote-picking robots with the efficiency and flexibility of floor-based picking robots.
Liu Kai, co-founder, and VP of smart warehouse products at Geek+, said: “In less than six years, we’ve managed to help global brands adjust and grow using intelligent robot solutions. The consistent flow of industry insights and experience allows us to provide solutions that match market conditions.
“Today, there is a general shortage of labour and space, and this issue will keep growing as global e-commerce continues to drive the demand for more warehouses. Both PopPick and RoboShuttle Next Gen are long-term solutions that help businesses make the most of available space through intelligent organisation and flexible handling of different types of storage units, and labour by optimising the picking process at the workstation.”
PopPick is designed to be the ultimate goods-to-person solution. It is compatible with different types of storage units such as totes and cartons. These are stored densely in an inventory area using pallets or mobile racks of 3.7m height for 50% more storage density compared with the original goods-to-person system.
Additionally, one rack can store up to 60 totes and be customised to store goods of varying sizes in an optimised way allowing four times more transportation efficiency.
Once incoming orders are registered, picking robots transfer pallets or mobile racks to a PopPick station where intelligent robot arms effectively retrieve totes or boxes of ordered goods and give them to the operator in two picking points, enabling three times throughput capacity.
According to Geek+, by optimising the number of robots, and maximising space utilisation and throughput capacity PopPick can reduce costs by 50%.
Furthermore, RoboShuttle Next Gen is made up of two types of robots. RS8 is an 8-meter-tall box-picking robot that navigates narrow aisles and P40 a tote-carrying robot equipped with a box-lifting module.
RoboShuttle allows businesses to make full use of vertical warehouse space and ensure safe storage, retrieval, and organisation of boxes carrying small to mid-sized items of many different SKUs. Once a box is retrieved, the robot places it on the lowest shelf of the rack, where a P40 robot swiftly carries it to an operator at a picking station, using its lifting module to adjust the box to a suitable height for the operators, enabling an ergonomic and safe work process.
If an SKU is subject to high demand, RoboShuttle will intelligently cache boxes of popular SKUs on the lowest shelf to speed up the picking process. Combining high-density robots with flexible picking robots, businesses can achieve three times more storage capacity and handle up to 500 boxes/hour/station.