By integrating LiDAR sensors and AI ( artificial intelligence), researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology are developing an intelligent material handling system for warehouses.
Given the need for increased efficiency and safety in warehouses, robots can be part of the solution.
“This is one area where robotics and autonomous material handling can help,” said Michael Kuhl, professor of industrial and systems engineering in RIT’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering, in an article on the university’s website. “Robots can work longer periods of time—not necessarily to replace jobs, but on some of the manual, non-value-added tasks. It means a change of focus of jobs, with people needed to design and maintain fleets of vehicles and robots.”
The team’s efforts were backed by a one-year, $300,000 project sponsored by The Raymond Corp. Prior to this project joint efforts established task selection and path planning of individual autonomous mobile robots (AMRs).
“We have information about localization, the different types of sensors that we use within the warehouse to try to identify where the robots are located, and the actual movement of the robot,” said Kuhl. “Can they plan to get from the current location to destination safely and efficiently? They can have a short path, but they still need to avoid other robots and people.”
Read the full article here.
