How Cubic Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems are Revolutionizing the Warehouse

The automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS) has existed since the dawn of e-commerce, but in the past few years, ASRSs have advanced and far surpassed their ancestors. Modern ASRS systems incorporate machine learning, computer vision, and new engineering and design methods to increase throughput, save energy and get smarter every day.

Cubic-based ASRS densifies product warehouses into compact grids, allowing logistics teams to place thousands of SKUs in a single facility – many more than regular rack storage with the same square footage. Robots navigate the top of the grids to retrieve goods, and robotic picking arms prepare them for packaging while a Warehouse Execution System (WES) directs the bots and the arms. Cubic-based ASRS also provides excellent inventory control and collects invaluable data to optimize operations. Most importantly, artificial intelligence (AI), robot redundancy and other engineering techniques have made these systems nearly failsafe as they fulfill orders 24/7.

AI-Driven Robotic Pick Arms Accelerate Order Fulfillment

Robotics engineers occasionally joke that their work gives them renewed respect for human biology. Grabbing a box, something people do without thinking, can be a significant challenge for a robotic arm. However, to efficiently pick and package items for delivery, this technical problem must be solved.

This is make or break for a warehouse. To provide rapid fulfillment, a vision system must identify the product, and a control system must tell a robotic arm how to pick it up quickly and place it in the correct bin. A fragile item requires extra care. If the robot has problems with the pick, it must adjust on the fly. In other words, the robotic arm must intuitively solve the problem.

AI, computer vision and sensing technologies are making it happen. Engineers use a technique called teleoperation to train robotic arms on how to pick diverse items, even the ones they’ve never encountered before.

Through this process, the robot learns what a successful (and unsuccessful) pick looks like and how to self-correct automatically in the future. It’s much like teaching a child how to brush their teeth – the parent holds the brush to help the child conform to this motion. Then, the robot shares this knowledge with the rest of the arms in the install base.

As a result, current-generation robotic arms are better at grabbing items, making fulfillment faster and more efficient, and allowing one robotic pick arm to handle a diverse suite of item sets, shapes and sizes. These sophisticated robotic arms are mounted on top of an ASRS grid, picking and placing items in the correct bins – day and night – to achieve high throughput.

Leveraging 3D Printing to Build Lighter, More Energy-Efficient Robots

While robotic picking arms stay in one place, the other ASRS robots move quickly on top of the grid orchestrated by the WES. The bots move bins to robotic arms, packing areas or different parts of the grid according to how frequently the items in the bin are needed.

The first-ever ASRS bots often looked like little refrigerators. They were effective, but they were also a little heavy. Now, topology optimization is reinventing ASRS robot design, making them smaller and significantly lighter.

Topology optimization analyzes designs and removes unneeded materials, creating unique, organic shapes. While this is a challenge for injection molding and other traditional manufacturing techniques, 3D printing can readily carry the load.

Ocado roboticists and engineers have used this technique and reduced the weight of the latest bots on the Ocado Storage and Retrieval System to make them three times lighter than their predecessor. Lighter bots are a big win on multiple levels. As they travel on top of the grid and retrieve products, they consume less energy. The weight reduction also benefits warehouse design. With lighter bots, the grid doesn’t have to hold as much weight, allowing it to be bigger, lighter and easier to assemble. This ultimately lowers warehouse costs and helps companies maximize storage space.

A Learning WES Helps Optimize Warehouse Configurations

Rapid retrieval is the key to fast fulfillment. The WES is the brain that orchestrates the bots, the bins and the robotic pick arms, telling the bots where to go and when and ensuring in-demand products are easily accessible.

The WES does more than oversee daily operations. It records terabytes of data daily, providing invaluable information to optimize grid configurations, routes and other key details. Companies can also create a digital copy of the ASRS warehouse, known as a digital twin, a powerful tool to test new strategies and optimize operations.

Digital twins help design warehouse layouts and ASRS configurations before they are built, for instance, to determine how many bots, charging stations and drop-off points are needed. Warehouse managers can use the software to simulate multiple scenarios and continuously improve the system’s overall efficiency.

No Single Point of Failure Solutions Prevent Warehouse Downtime

When traditional warehouse automation systems that depend on conveyors break down, due to the many single points of failure (SPOF), they create bottlenecks that can last for hours and cause order delays or even cancellations.

A cubic-based ASRS is more flexible and dynamic, with no single point of failure. Not because they don’t occasionally break – but because there are many robots that work as a team. When a bot fails because it has lost communication with the WES, it has minimal to no impact on the system performance because there are dozens or hundreds of other bots to keep the throughput going.

Smart-sensing bots and vision systems installed in the robotic pick arms monitor the fleet of bots. When they identify a robot malfunction, the computer vision recognizes the fault and cordons off the area until the bot can be removed. Like a car stalling in heavy traffic, all the bots just drive around it.

Because individual products can be stored in multiple places, temporarily losing a piece of the grid has only a minor impact. A reserve bot taps in, and the system works around the glitch. The ASRS remains fully operational by segregating problematic bots, and fulfillment continues.

The ever-improving ASRS is driving new opportunities for warehouses and fulfillment centers with high throughput and complex fulfillment operations. Retailers and apparel companies can stock a great range of inventory, rapidly fulfill a high volume of orders, and even meet unexpected demand surges. Third-party logistics companies can handle diverse inventory types with different storage requirements and scale throughput as customers and needs evolve. Because the systems are so flexible, a vast number of sectors can utilize the solution, and because the system is defined by the software, ASRSs will only get better over time.