Will these two robots make many warehouse staff redundant
? Robots have been around in warehouses for some time, but they are often not yet
capable of handling the entire fulfilment process. Robots with gripper arms are
often too heavy to cover many kilometres within the warehouse. Fetch Robotics
therefore came up with the idea of having two devices work together and developed the robot duo Fetch & Freight.
Fetch
Freight
The pair may look a bit cute, but they are fully capable of picking orders. Fetch has been developed to retrieve goods from shelves. It is said to be about as fast as the average warehouse worker. Once the goods have been retrieved, the system determines the location of its counterpart, Freight – which bears a strong resemblance to Amazon’s Kiva. The products are dropped into Freight’s basket. Freight then transports the goods away. The robot is said to be capable of travelling two metres every second.
Collaborating with humans
Fetch can lift around 6 kg of goods and is therefore best suited for e-commerce warehouses that hold smaller products. If the goods are still too heavy for Fetch, warehouse employees can also be used to work with Freight. Fetch automatically follows the employee around the warehouse, so they do not have to push the trolley themselves. Conveniently, the robots also place themselves in the charging station as soon as the batteries are running low.
What will the robot duo cost?
The question, of course, is how much something like this will cost. There is no one-size-fits-all answer to that, as the software required varies greatly from warehouse to warehouse. According to Fetch Robotics, we should expect a price of $100,000 for Fetch and a price of $30,000 for Freight.
Check out how Fetch & Freight will work below:
Editorial team LogistiekProfs
