Warehouse Picking Robot With Telescopic Reach for High Shelves
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current warehouse picking systems rely heavily on human intervention, which is prone to errors, costly, and inefficient, especially in reaching high shelves and maintaining consistent capacity utilization, and existing automation solutions require significant investment and are not flexible or reliable.
Innovation Solution
A robot with a base plate, drive unit, and pick-up unit, equipped with a telescopable bar system and a shelf unit, allowing for autonomous navigation and picking of individual objects from various locations, including high shelves, and the ability to transport them to desired destinations without human intervention.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If human workers are used to pick objects from warehouse shelves, then the system is flexible and easy to operate, but error rate increases and productivity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The robot autonomously navigates to shelves, identifies objects to be picked, grasps them, and transports them to destinations without human intervention. The system self-manages the complete picking and transport cycle, eliminating human error while maintaining continuous operation capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the human mechanical picking system with an automated robotic system equipped with sensors, actuators, and control algorithms. The robot uses computer vision for object identification, robotic arms for grasping, and autonomous navigation for movement, substituting human physical actions with automated mechanical systems.
2Ease of manufacture
If human workers manually pick objects, then the system has low initial cost, but operational costs increase and capacity utilization varies
Solution Approach 1:
The robotic system operates continuously without breaks, shifts, or fatigue, maintaining constant productivity. The robot can work during night shifts and extended hours, ensuring uninterrupted object picking and transport operations, thereby maximizing capacity utilization of the warehouse system.
3Reliability
If automated rack systems are implemented to bring objects to users, then picking accuracy improves, but device complexity and initial investment increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of bringing shelves and objects to the user (as in automated rack systems), the robot inverts the approach by moving to the shelves, picking objects, and bringing them to the destination. This reverses the traditional automated storage concept while achieving similar reliability benefits with simpler, more flexible equipment.
Solution Approach 2:
The robotic system performs multiple functions: autonomous navigation, object identification, grasping, and transport. A single robot unit can serve multiple destinations and access various shelf locations, replacing the need for complex dedicated automated rack systems for each picking location.
4Length of stationary object
If robots are used to carry complete racks, then high shelves become accessible, but device complexity and system failure risk increase
Solution Approach 1:
The robot divides the task of accessing high shelves into separate functional components: navigation to the shelf location, object identification, grasping, and transport. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently and reduces the risk of complete system failure, as individual components can be replaced or repaired without affecting the entire system.
Data Source
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AI summary
The present invention is directed to a robot (2) adapted to pick up and transport objects (1002) comprising a base plate (4), a drive unit (6), a pick up unit (10) and a shelf unit (8), wherein the drive unit (6), the pick up unit (10) and the shelf unit (8) are positioned on the base plate (4). The present invention is also directed to a method of transporting at least one object (1002), comprising: providing the robot (2), the robot (2) going to a first storing location where a first object (1002) is stored, the robot (2) picking up the first object (1002), and the robot (2) transporting the first object (1002) to a first destiny location.