Next-gen of robotic picking

The concept is that warehouses will be able to deploy intelligent picking robots combined with tens to thousands of orchestrated mobile robots, or use either independently, to deliver higher throughputs at a lower cost than legacy systems.

The solution comprises Intelligent Enterprise Robotic (IER) picking and mobility solutions with a new generation of mobile robots. 

The company says: “Unlike fixed conveyor belts and early generation mobile robots, Berkshire Grey’s intelligent fleets harness the power of AI to orchestrate tens to thousands of mobile robots to pick, organise, and deliver items for a wide variety of customer and store orders.”

Today’s businesses must overcome complex logistical hurdles to fulfill orders for any product in a variety of ways including curbside pickup, buy online pickup in store, and same- or next-day delivery. As a result, fulfillment leaders seek to handle a wider variety of SKUs with increased throughput using a variety of constructs including back-of-store, small scale distribution centres, and full scale distribution centres.

The AI-based orchestration software enables many robots to work together in a performant fashion, where robots improve and learn over time, and where the activities carried out by different robots and modules are coordinated. With the new generation of mobile robots incorporated in these solutions, Berkshire Grey’s intelligent fleets of mobile robots can:

• Integrate robotic picking with mobile robots to increase automation levels and fulfillment speeds. 
• Transform any facility into a high throughput fulfillment system with minimal disruption to existing operations. Facilities can deploy the new robot systems in both existing and new fulfillment centres in one third of the time of legacy systems.
• Handle greater SKU coverage than legacy systems – including heavier items, non-conveyables, and challenging items like shrink-wrapped packages (e.g. dog food bags, glass, water bottle packs).
• Perform faster and more flexibly than traditional approaches – conducting agile any-induct-to-any-discharge organisation of goods and incorporating intelligent on-field storage supporting many use cases.
• Dually utilise storage locations as robot highways and handle diverse SKUs directly – the new robots can rotate and adjust positions, pass under shelves and conveyor belts, and function without a tray or tote container – all of which enable speedier throughput and reduced process costs.

Berkshire Grey’s automated solutions are dynamically reconfigurable and available via Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS) implementation models. 

As previously announced, on February 24, 2021, Berkshire Grey entered into a definitive agreement with Revolution Acceleration Acquisition Corp (Nasdaq: RAAC) that is expected to result in Berkshire Grey becoming a publicly listed company early in the third quarter of 2021.

For more information, visit www.berkshiregrey.com