Modern Warehousing Capabilities Mirror the Goals of Industrie 4.0

Machine Vision Sensors Optimize the Modern Warehouse

Warehouses and distribution centers are undergoing a quiet revolution in the adoption of advanced technologies. The warehouse is on the trajectory to implement many of the capabilities sought in the vision of Industrie 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).  Companies such as Amazon, Walgreens, and LL Bean are seeking out solutions that are robust, high speed, and have little labor content. The margin pressure in the retail sector is placing incredible demands on operations to reduce labor content, increase production output, and reduce warehousing space. Innovations abound in the warehouse today with the wide use of automated and semi-automated systems used to track, retrieve and store goods. Palletizing robotics, autonomous fork lifts, tracking systems, and scanning tunnels are now the foundation of the current generation of highly automated warehouses. However, underpinning many of these systems is the proliferation of machine vision technology which is being utilized as an advanced sensor.

Machine vision sensors have been making inroads in warehousing as material handling automation seeks to improve operational effectiveness while also increasing the range of products that can be handled. Automated material handling systems are not only tracking cartons through the maze of conveyance and sortation systems, but automatically determining volume and weight without interrupting the flow of parcels. Machine vision has been an enabling technology to solve these challenging problems as it provides a more robust solution in a world where shapes, weights, and identification are not always easy to determine. Machine vision integrated with robotic systems and high speed automation is making inroads into warehouse on several fronts which include barcode reading, volumetric scanning, package inspection, natural feature based navigation, and 3D guided robotic palletizing. In many instances, machine vision has been the only viable way to solve an automation problem. Vision systems are enabling automated handling systems to be more tolerant of size variations, creating order out of disorder, and proving to be more robust when reading barcodes. The benefit is that fewer packages require manual intervention, shipping container sizes are being minimized leading to a value proposition of Machine Vision that is being buoyed by the increased efficiency in warehousing.

Warehousing Automation Rivals the Factory Floor

At over a half a million square feet the typical warehouse rivals the complexity of high production factory floors. To manage this complexity, material handling automation architectures have become stratified and connected through well-defined interfaces to facilitate the integration of newer technologies that provide operational improvements. A five layer hierarchical model is often used to define a manageable automation architecture for the integration of business systems, warehouse control systems, distributed automation controllers, tracking systems, and sensors. Automated material handling systems are integrating business systems with conveyance and sortation systems handling up to 300 cartons per minute. This is incredible considering the variety of package sizes and weights. At the sensor level, machine vision is now being incorporated to provide a wider operational range for many of the machines and tracking systems. Inline product identification allows transport systems make decisions at the latest stage possible. High volume shippers such as UPS and FedEx have used this capability to increase the supply chain visibility in their sortation centers. Just think of how easy it is to reroute a package after you have shipped it. Proliferation of vision based identification systems that are connected over the high speed internet has enabled shippers to use the unique package ID to provide instructions to every piece of handling equipment whether it is a conveyor, diverter or fork lift truck.