A video posted in (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG3Frwaa47E) shows the use of drones for indoor material handling being planned by Qimarox. The video shows the benefits of using the third dimension and thus relieving the constraints of aisles for warehousing equipment. The direct flight between points also reduces the constraints on location of kitted components. Will drones provide the productivity and flexibility demanded for light weight kitting ? Will ecommerce warehouses be potential users, particularly for cosmetics, pharma and computer components ? How will drones compete with robots and how should warehouse management systems plan to be integrated with drones for efficient order picking ?
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This will be beneficial for warehouse automation in parallel with other robots, conveyors, and auto sorting. I don’t believe it will be a replacement due to size and payload constraints, but as a compliment it may be a viable means to utilize space (even that which may currently be difficult to utilize) inside or outside a warehouse/distribution center. This would be a great testing ground for UAV/UAS sense and avoid systems, since it appears coordination with the FAA will continue for years to come. The ability to prove UAV/UAS safety and coordination with piloted aircraft is a hot topic!
Interesting! We’ve looked at UAVs outside of the warehouse in logistics, let us know what you think 🙂 http://bit.ly/1DOWaR1
As shown in the video, using drones for material handling allows you to take advantage of the third dimension in space that was not previously an option when using fork trucks or robots in material handling plants. Therefore, when coordinated correctly, drones would provide the productivity and flexibility demanded for light weight kitting. Drones can be programmed to fly around the warehouse just like the robots, so they will be productive enough if they have good enough battery life. Depending on the weight of the product, drones will be more flexible then robots because aisles in the warehouse can be tighter and more drones can move around at once using the third dimension of space. Ecommerce warehouses would be great potential users of drones but specifically ecommerce warehouses that deal with light products like cosmetics, pharma, and computer components. In ecommerce warehouses where some products are to heavy for drones it would be possible to run robots and drones to move products throughout the warehouse. This would largely be based on a cost analysis of running a drone vs running a robot in the warehouse and the reliability of one vs the other. Drones will not be able to replace robots unless they are able to lift bigger items efficiently. Warehouse management systems could be integrated with the drones to help program the drones where to go and what to pick up. A bare code scanner on the drone would check the item off in the system and the drone could move on to the next item.
Drones will be a very useful asset for organizations to utilize to cut back on labor and increase efficiency during the loading process. I believe that these drones will be capable of maintaining an efficient productivity in the warehouses. These drones will cost less over time because organizations will be able to depreciate these assets rather than having to pay a person for all of the hours, they worked doing the same process a drone could do. The flexibility these drones are capable of having is unlike anything the current workplace has experienced. They will be able to complete any action, with the correct programming and software. People can be flexible, but there is always a moment when individuals must comprehend what is happening in order to be able to adjust to the situation. Drones on the other hand would be able to stop what they are doing and go onto the next task without missing a beat. Ecommerce warehouses are the perfect example of where these drones can be utilized. In these large open areas, it would give the drones plenty of room to fly while focusing on the lightweight products. Managers must be aware that they will not be able to eliminate all of their warehouse employees because these drones have a weight limit on what they can carry from place to place. I believe that drones and robots should both be utilized within a company to help the efficiency and productivity. They should not be seen as competitors but instead they should be used together.
The ability of drones to kit lightweight products largely depends on the secondary technologies that support the drone. For long-term success the gripping mechanism must be capable of lifting many types of objects of varying dimensions and shapes. Also, the software the determines how packages are stacked must be able to consider varying shapes and the strength of the items being stacked. It is also possible that broadband and processing speeds are not yet capable of performing these calculations at a large scale. However, this may be significantly improved with the advent of 5G spectrum. The listed component categories (cosmetics, etc.) are likely candidates because of their small size and weight.
A combination of drones and ground-based robotics would allow for the greatest utilization of space. Robots might focus on assembling and disassembling tasks, whereas drones could focus on point-to-point transportation. A robust warehouse management system would be required to ensure that all machines are operating on the same platform. The robots and drones would work most effectively when they have direct access to inventory data.
From my perspective, the benefits of drone are becoming more and more outstanding. The different view of the drone brings new angle of the warehouse inspection. Also, the other functions which carry by the drone extend the utilization possibility. The lightweight kitting has already realized in nowadays industry and definitely increase the productivity. The ecommerce warehouses will be the potential users especially for cosmetics and computer components. Products from these industries are various and elaborated. Compared with the robots, drone has shorter route of delivery. Drone and robot could combine as a new system. Robot is easier to drag the product and drone can deliver the product to make this process faster.
Drones will provide the productivity and flexibility demanded for light weight kitting. They will reduce the labor cost associated with the warehouse. They are extremely accurate to navigate and can be flexibly programmed. However, the productivity is still depending on the battery range. Finding an efficient way to changeover drones or battery is the key to increase productivity. Ecommerce warehouses can be the potential users but still a long way to go. All the drones generate heat and strong wind, which are not good for lightweight or temperature sensitive cargos.
Drones should work with robots. For example, drones can be the eyes of the robots, directing them to move cargos. To better integrated with drones for efficient order picking, the warehouse management system should have an algorithm to arrange the route and cargos based on warehouse layout, battery range, temperature, cargo weight and other parameters. The warehouse should also have a dedicated automated battery swapping area to minimize charging time.
Drones may be a useful too for the warehouse management recently. First, it can help the labors to pick up or loading the package which is hard to reach in the warehouse. By doing so, it can make the process more efficient and even enhance the capacity of the warehouse that the space of warehouse is completely used. The difference between it and robot is the former requires the human to manipulate. However, it can be effectively monitored by human beings as well. I think it will be more functional if it is integrate with some ERP system, for example, it will greatly helpful for the labors to do the inventory management if the drones can help scan the barcode and transfer the data to the system.
Drones allow the space in warehouses can be used more effectively, and drones are good at carrying small size products, thus provide the productivity and flexibility demanded for light weighted kitting. E-commerce warehouses can be potential users of drones. However, it may depend on the scale of the business. Large businesses like Amazon would benefit the most from this strategy because their warehouses and plants process tons of products every day. Keeping the entire process running more efficiently means faster delivery of products to customers, thus creating more revenue. Small businesses usually face smaller demand. Therefore, there is no needs to purchase drones to manage warehouses. Drones are aerial vehicles and robots are ground vehicle, drones do not necessarily need to compete with robots, adopting both drones and robots allows them to effectively assist each other. Warehouses need certain software to constantly monitor the performance of drones and robots in order to track real-time information.
In my opinion, humanity is moving rapidly towards complete automation of supply chains. Many large companies are currently developing projects in this area. For example, Amazon’s Prime Air program aims to develop a system for the delivery of goods by no human pilot drones to its customer. The movement of goods within warehouses will also not be left out. Fast, low-cost drones will certainly be of great benefit when loading trucks or sorting goods. In my opinion, this technology can be used for sorting and loading in warehouses, including for cosmetics, pharma and computer components. Drones and robots can be part of the same system. Ground-based repetitive actions can be performed by robots, and air transportation can be performed by drones. For example, robots can perform tasks related to unloading goods from a truck and transferring it to a conveyor, and drones can unload goods from conveyors and form collective orders into pallets. However, for such a system to work productively and efficiently, a significant investment of time, human labor, and financial resources are required. Definitely, developing software and technology, as well as, integrating and testing of complex system are tricky tasks to complete in the near future.
Drones utilize something that most other robots do not: all 3 dimensions. Many robots operate only on the ground, but drones allow for more efficient use of space by utilizing the air. E-commerce warehouses will be potential users for the equipment, but drones must be prepared to handle different kinds of packaging they encounter. The greater variety in package shape and size will provide challenges, therefore applications where packaging tends to be more standard will be better served by drones. Additionally, there are constraints on package weight which must be considered as well. As with all technology, it does posses certain advantage over traditional human labor. Robots of all types require a significant upfront investment, but do not incur expenses that come even close to employee wages. There are often different physical restraints with a robot, however they differ from that of a human worker, and robots do not have to worry about ergonomics. In order to prepare for the integration of drones, firms should ensure that they collect data on package size, material, and weight in order to ensure it can be served by the drone.
Comparing to robots, drones have superior flexibility and productivity demanded for light weight kitting. First of all, drones are able to cover three dimensions, and fly at different heights. This helps drones to be a perfect candidate for light weight kitting. Secondly, drones provide faster speed comparing to robots that travel on the ground. Lastly, combination of robots and drones can provide continuous shipping and avoid dead head that coordinate the line haul and back haul to minimize cost and maximize productivity and efficiency. E-commerce warehouses can be potential users, particularly for cosmetics, pharma, and computer components because these components require high accuracy and do not require heavy load which is perfect for the use of drones. Drones do not necessarily need to compete with robots, on the other hand,warehouse management systems can plan to be integrated with drones combining with robots for efficient order picking. Which means, robots will handle the heavy loads on the ground for big packages and larger orders. At the same time, drones will handle sorting and pick order from different locations of the warehouses from a higher layer in order to fulfill boxes that will then be transported by robots on the ground.
Based on the content from the video, we can see the drones can provide point to point material handling service in a well organized and highly efficient order. Also, each drone can complete the job in a timely manner as well. Under this circumstance, I believe the direct flights can provide more productivity and more flexibility since the transportation time can be reduced and multiple models and types of drones can be used in the warehouse. Because of the natural of the drone handling, it will be a great idea for ecommerce warehouse to gradually adapt the drone handling method since the ecommerce are usually selling variety of goods with different sizes and weights. They need some flexible drones to carry those types of goods in an efficient way. Since the cost of using and maintaining drones ere not given in the video, it is hard to say the cost comparison between drones and robots. I would like to say that if companies can find a good combination and balance between the usages of drones and robots and thus the total productivity of the workload can be better increased.
I think the application of drones to warehouse management systems, especially the sorting of light goods, can indeed improve efficiency and productivity. As shown in the video, compared to traditional manual or robot working methods, the advantage of drones is that they can make the most of three-dimensional space. Nevertheless, I think there may be some problems. First of all, in order to cooperate with the use of drones, the packaging of goods may have to be redesigned to ensure that they can be identified by the machine. The power and load capacity of drones are limited, even for light objects. At the same time, because the sorted items are mainly cosmetics, computer components, etc., which are light-weight but high-value commodities, this also places higher requirements on the accuracy and reliability of the drone. In addition, the integration of drones and their supporting systems is very expensive, and companies are likely to be prepared for no return in the short term.
The use of drones for indoor material handling can create a plethora of opportunities for companies looking to reduce overhead costs and improve efficiencies throughout the process.
Some issues that may rise with drones are their ability to maneuver a large assortment of packages. In order for a drones to pick and sort packages, the package must be under a certain weight capacity as well as size. Because of this, drones are somewhat limited. However, some companies focused on products like cosmetics, pharma, or computer components may have small, lightweight items that need to be sorted or arranged, which can offer opportunities for drones to be implemented.
Material handling however, should not solely focus on the ability of drones. Robotics, self-operating conveyers and sorters, as well as other A.I. induced equipment should be utilized. All of these items can help speed up processes and reduce mistakes if used in unity. .
I think drones can provide the necessary flexibility for ecommerce operations. However, there seems to be higher coordination complexity as compared to robots. I believe a warehouse equipped with both robots and drones can provide greater flexibility, provided that it is cost competitive to have both. One advantage of the drones over the robots is the capacity of the drone to only move the item needed, but this require the item to be available at the top of the stack. Hence, the product stacking should have a different configuration when using drones.
It’s true that advances in technology are now contributing in areas such as material handling relieving constraints of aisle in warehousing, but would this really provide more productivity and flexibility? Companies who had been testing this kind of drones has come to realized that drones’ vision of inventory might be limited when it comes to see from beside or above racks. But one of the labors and cost issues that warehouses faced could be addressed in a more effective way by drones, which is the need from humans to conduct physical inventory.
I believe that ecommerce will be definitely migrating on the direction of using more and more this kind of technology, since they have a high numbers of small size orders, it important to have tools that can provide high accuracy.
On the other hand, I don’t think that drones will completely replace the use or robots, since there is a size and weight limitation for drones. It’s more likely that both technologies would be used altogether
Drones can perform some warehouse operations such as cycle counting, stock counting, and inventory management really well. Drones are far more time and energy efficient than humans and forklift trucks when it comes to repetitive barcode or RFID scanning operations, using a barcode scanner, drones can perform scanning with relative ease. But in order to make drones perform effective picking and sorting operations, there are certain limitations like product weight, and size. It can be said that in case of light weight kitting, drones could provide productivity and flexibility. Also, e-commerce warehouses could be the potential users of drones, particularly for lightweight items like cosmetics, pharma and computer components. There seems no need of drones to complete with robots, both can be used together for more efficient warehouse management. Robots can perform heavy load picking on ground, on the other hand drones can utilize aerial route to pick items distributed all over the warehouse from top aisles and put on the pallets or the delivery boxes.
As others mentioned, drones are being looked at by many companies for use in their supply chains. I had never heard anyone talk about indoor use until this video, but it seems more reasonable to implement than all of the outdoor applications (delivery, etc.) that we hear of frequently in the news. Outdoor use requires a lot of regulatory adjustments, specifically with the FAA, while the indoor use would require the companies to cut through less red tape. Another thing to consider is the energy consumption. There are many amazing technologies that are not put into practice because they are so energy intensive and cost a lot to operate. I imagine this would be true for drone. It takes a lot of energy to get an object off the ground, hence the high fuel consumption in aircraft.
Drone would provide a very strong increase in productivity in the handling of light weight kiting. It is obvious that when this technology will be mature enough, its implementation will cut down costs significantly and also improve efficiency.
I feel that Ecommerce is definitely a target customers for those kind of applications because a warehouse provide ideal conditions for drones. Indeed it is protected from bad weather, it is a closed environment and there is access to energy to charge those drones. However, those drones will be limited by the charge they can carry. Therefore they should focus on light items.
Robot are probably slower but there are capable to carry heavier products. Therefore, they should be used to deal with those items. However, a drone is much faster but as a limit in what it can carry. By mixing bot technology, you would obtain probably the most efficiency in your operations. However, the costs of implementation of both technology in one warehouse would be probably a break and would potentially not make economical sense. When those two technologies will be mature enough, cost will go down and therefore it will be much easier to implement them in all warehouses.
Are drones the future of warehouse management? Probably yes, but will this technology be able to completely replace other existing technology or work without any assistant technology especially in material handling is something to think about. Drone technology, like many other advanced and innovative technologies in inventory management, promises us of a faster, easier, more efficient and almost an error free way of controlling packages including picking, sorting and placing. It has been able to revolutionize the way operations are performed in warehouses up until now. However, this innovation may come with certain shortcomings which would probably restrict its application. The amount of weight that drones can carry, the power required for their long lasting flights, the training needed or workforce required to maintain their effective usage along with the cost effectiveness in warehouses handling thousands of goods each day are some of things that need to be worked through before we can fully realize the wonders of this technology. Thus, their potential can fully be utilized in light kitting industries with drones being assisted by robots, conveyor belts and other equipments to handle, sort and place products that are outside of drones’ capacity
From the video, undoubtedly, drones will provide productivity and flexibility for light weight kitting. By utilizing air space, a capability that humans can’t yet adopt, drones can be much more productive and flexible when enclosed in limited space.
E-commerce is a big field where drone logistic can be applied to. For smaller and higher value products like cosmetics, drugs, and electrical components, drones can be more effective towards the end of the supply chain where products are shipped with variance of SKUs in the package to the consumers.
Drones and robots will serve different parts of the supply chain. As robots may serve better at the beginning, drones may serve better at the end. This is because at the upstream, products tends to be in large quantity and runs a rather set path. While downstream products are more retail orientated and are reaching more destinations. With drones, warehouse management can utilize air space and design more compact operation space to reduce cost.
First of all, drones are developing and we now see great potential in them working in warehouses and provide transportation options for lightweight objects. However, will the cost of multiple drones to compete with moving belt is another question. Assuming the case where drones are believed to be helpful – picking smaller items from inventory and send them onto the packaging station. Drones need to land on the objects to pick them up meaning all objects would be stored on an open area with nothing covering them – at the current stage, I don’t think drones would be able to fly into narrow spaces. This means no stacking of different skus and no shelf – impossible for current warehouse utilization. Also considering drone flying point to point – they would not beat the belt system if the belt system is carefully designed, not to mention the cost for drones are still higher than the belt system. In general, I believe without a significant improvement in drones – especially on their flexibility in narrow and dark space and stability when coordinating with other drones, robots and belts are still by far the easiest and cheapest solution for the warehouse.
From my perspective, I highly doubt whether using drones in the warehouse can increasing the productivity and flexibility because as we can see from the video, drones can only deal with light weight products, which has already limited their usable range. Besides, direct flight between points is not as easy as it seems like because their routes cross with each other. If they meet, one of them need to wait to avoid crashing, which requires more functions with drones like auto sensing and may increase the overall processing time.
For ecommerce business, using drones can be a potential way to improve their performance because their products fit the requirement of using drones and most of their orders are online so that the information can be dealt with inside the system and drones can take the products automatically and accurately according to the order without checking. But, products need to be taken off the shelf before drones take them to the plate. If we use people to finish this process, it’s meaningless to use drones afterwards because all the order information has already been proceeded by people and they can finish the left process fast and accurately. If we use automatic way to finish this process, those companies need to spend more money in building automatic warehouse and this is not a choice for me just to add drones in the final step.
The largest advantage drones have compared with robots is that they are more cheap and focused on the single, useful function. In this case, all we want is to send the products from the conveyor to the plate. Drones can finish this job fast but robots are too slow and need more space. For the management system, I think it might be great if drones can deal with complex orders which contains too many single products and might be confused by human. It might also be more efficient if all the outbound process are automatically.
I think the most amazing thing is that drones are able to make use of the third dimension, which comes to the air. In daily life, people may face traffic jams from time to time and they wish their car could fly. In order to relieve the pressure of traffic, people build the overpass and higher track for the bus. Drones are what gather these benefits above and won’t interfere with the existed warehouse activities. After having drones, people or equipment on the floor can focus on doing more heavyweight stuff, while drones take care of those light things. On the other hand, drones itself can finish the whole process of up-down especially for those higher shelves which bring more productivity.
E-commerce warehouses fit well for industries such as cosmetics, pharma, and computer components, because they have mostly small-sized products but with a wide variety. Drones can sort out from different shelves more efficiently.
I think robots seem to be more intelligent and they can do much more than “moving” things as for drones. Thus drones need to magnify its advantage in the air. It’s important to make sure drones can operate reliably with a more complete route design. For example, if a drone crashes, people need to consider whether other operations would be greatly impacted.
Drones definitely will provide the productivity and flexibility demanded for light weight kitting. This is a revolution for the development of our society. However, we will also needs human to get involved and manage all the drones. It will decrease labor costs but will also increase other costs such as maintenance and repair. The low end labor and high end labor are different as well.
Ecommerce warehouses will be potential users, particularly for cosmetics, pharma and computer components whenever it can make the whole process more efficiency.
Comparing with robots, drones will save more space since they are point to point delivery and in transit from the air rather than from the land. But drones will be more applicable for light weight goods. In general, drones are attached to a larger space craft and designed to expand the ship’s launching capabilities.
Yes, drones will provide the productivity and flexibility required for light weight kitting, with their ability to carry small size products and opening up warehouse space to be used more effectively. However, factors to consider will be product size, shape and weight, aside from effective coordination required to operate the drones.
E-commerce warehouses are surely potential users, particularly, and arguably specifically for cosmetics, pharma and computer components, because the products tend to be on the smaller and lighter range, which allows for drone use.
Robots still have the advantage of being able to pick larger, heavier things than drones can, which gives robots the competitive edge. However, in time, once drones are equipped to pick large, heavy items, this notion will change. Warehouse management systems should integrate with drones via use of ERP systems, data collection systems and bar code scanning for efficient and quick order picking.
From my perspective, using drones for kitting can not only increase the productivity and flexibility but also reduce errors and cost for training new employees. To compare with human, drones just new correct coding then them can work for thousands time without any mistake and drone don’t need time for training, however, human needs enough time of training to be familiar with the work and the longer them work the more possibilities them will make mistake. On the other hand, comparing with robots, drones can use the advantage of the ability to use the third dimension and cheaper cost for each unit. The number robots of Each warehouse can accommodate is much smaller than the drones, robots like AGV which uses wire guidance or magnetic tape only can move only certain routes and they cannot operate too much together due to traffic in no the road. But Drones can use the third dimension which has no limit of route and traffic which will make a huge difference when facing a lot of orders in a short time.
Drones will be productive and flexible for light weight kitting. But drones can have battery lasting problem because of wireless and be easier to break down because still new techniques. Drones can fly which will have bigger and broader space to manage the routes, compared to robots which only have ground to move. However, due to drones’ size, they can only carry less amount of item each time when they are operating. The cycle times need to be frequent which can waste more time and cost.
Drones may improve the productivity and efficiency required for lightweight kitting. From the video, usage of drones seem to be an efficient way for vertical stacking of products on an open pallet. However, drones are best used along with robots as drones alone cannot be of much use when kitted products are stored layered racks. While drones can process the kitting of products, robots can be used to move pallets to required location.
At a nascent stage, drones can be used for lightweight products such as cosmetics, etc, but with improvements in drone technology, they can be implemented for heavier products as well. I can see drones along with robots being used in ecommerce warehouses, and perhaps in retail chains such as Walmart, in the near future.
Using drones for indoor material handling is a very innovative way to improve traditional warehousing processes. This could be many advantages such as better space utilization, improved warehouse productivity and better picking accuracy. But I think there are more than enough disadvantages in favor of robots such as Amazon’s Kiva robots such as low average battery life (10-20mins), increased charging infrastructure, lower payload capability, higher capital costs and higher complexity because of varying package dimensions.
But there is some scope of drone usage for single or limited size packages for handling pharma, cosmetics and computer components. Managers cannot completely disregard the flexibility and handling capabilities of warehouse associates and robots. Therefore, I think drones should be implemented in a small scale to complement existing handling processes with associates and robots to improve efficiency
Warehouses are labor-intensive and the successful operating of any warehouse is determined by how well the data updation and data integration are in real-time along with its efficient infrastructure. Now, it is true that automation of any sort enhances productivity and efficiency. But that comes at a cost and it is important to understand that when it comes to industrial sectors, unlike common belief, growth and automation are not necessarily synonymous. In this particular case, warehouses with the aid of drones can revamp their infrastructure which utilizes spaces more efficiently, increases the operational speed with less probability of errors, and mishandling of material. Companies can also save on labor and training costs and redirect their employees to relatively creative tasks that are not repetitive and arduous. But they will have to invest in drones which are not only expensive but also have certain constraints, one being that although they are good at minimizing and detecting the problems, they cannot be as good as humans in fixing it. When companies unman the warehouse, they will not only adopt drones but also adopt new policies and designs to make themselves compatible with drones. All that is worth it when companies are sure that their inefficiencies and shortcomings in warehouses can be better dealt with sensors and AI-equipped devices and not with any other kind of manual optimization and strategic changes. If companies decide to go for automation, it should be in entirety, and drones and robots can complement each other well in building the future of the warehousing industry.
Drones have the possibility of providing the productivity and flexibility demanded for lightweight kitting. They would allow warehouses to make use of more 3d space but could also bring a different set of restraints themselves. From the video, the drone needed a certain level of height in order to set the boxes down and could face more difficulty if there was something above the pallets. Warehouses currently designed to maximize the efficiencies of humans and robots would need to be altered to allow for drone use. Drones would be able to compete on picking smaller amounts of light components while robots would have the advantage in heavier objects in larger quantities. E-commerce warehouses could start with a drone section where they work with the drone manufacturers to develop the software to monitor the drones as well as test out the drones to that they could reliably pick and carry all the different products.
Use of drones to leverage the third dimension can provide the productivity and flexibility demanded for light weight kitting. It can considerably decrease the ground traffic in a warehouse and improve space utilization. Ecommerce and pharma warehouses can be potential users but the weight of goods that can be moved is a constraint. Movement of drones inside a warehouse without disruption requires high levels of co-ordination. There is also an additional effort required to make the packages drone friendly. We should also consider the risks associated with using a drone such as accidental dropping of packages or misplacement in a wrong pallet.
In my opinion, drones are not a replacement for robots rather they can complement each other. If a company is able to manage both efficiently, it can improve the productivity in a warehouse.
As lucrative as this looks, it’s imperative to understand the potential implications of using flight technology for material handling. For starters, this technology is at a very nascent stage of development, with vision and autonomy predominantly governing surveillance operations and its applications burgeoning in logistics. When it comes to a warehouse, a downtime due to any probable technology related causes is very hurtful to a firm’s service level and performance. If a hybrid system with conveyors, AGVs and drones complementing each other for material handling is indeed set up, a strong distributed computing IT structure will be necessary for coordination, risk aversion (for examples: collisions or breakdowns) and data transparency between agent-based systems. Any issue that causes mishandling may cause a blockage in the line operations along with material damage and other severe costs. Outbound order aggregation will necessitate use of hybrid systems due to different product weights. It will be interesting to see how RFIDs and location-based picking operations take place in such a hybrid system. A dedicated monitoring system can be set up to see the performance of this technology on a pilot scale and it can be developed to support operations due to all its advantages.
The cost and viability of setting up this technology efficiently should be weighed against the perks of efficiency and better capacity utilization to make the decisions.
Drones have boosted people’s creativity on the applications for a small flying object. Moreover, being capable of programming particular paths and technological improvements to specialize drones capabilities opens great opportunities for increased efficiencies, flexibility and control to operations.
Having technological additions to drones can be tremendously beneficial for material handling, especially in high areas that are more complicated to reach. Still, there are limitations that need to be addressed to ensure sustainable operations and scalability of this activity. On the other hand, I believe that there are still concerns of people being close to drones in closed areas as drone-related accidents have become more common; this issue should be carefully managed if the plan is to have drones relatively close to humans.
Another opportunity is to have a blend of ground robots like the ones introduced by Kiva, later acquired by Amazon – now Amazon Robotics – Having both would generate increased efficiencies and provide even a more detailed picture of the operation. In order to achieve considerable improvement, it is important to have a robust warehouse management system and the appropriate mechanisms of communication for drones and robots to coordinate daily operations.
I think drones have capability to manage light loads in material handling applications. However, their applications in warehousing and logistics may be limited because of the inability to manage heavier loads. It seems impractical to have a different set of equipment for lighter loads. Since this technology is still in the beginning phase, may be in a few years’ time, we are discussing about similar compact drones with a higher load capacity. In that case, applications in material handling improve dramatically. As of now, it could play a smaller role in the logistics space.
I believe that drones will bring productivity and flexibility to the warehouse for the following advantages:
(1) Inventory delivery is faster.
Obviously, the use of drones in the logistics field is mainly used to deliver goods. The realization of this function can be completed by programming equipment, and then the drone can be transmitted from the headquarters to the designated area through the corresponding program. In this way, the delivery of goods can be carried out by air transportation, which is the most fastest way.
(2) Increase the operational efficiency of logistics companies.
The use of drone technology in the logistics field can enable staff to focus on other equally important logistics areas, enabling logistics companies to complete a larger amount of work within the same staff’s work range.
(3) Save energy.
Drones can help workers deliver deliveries while saving their workload. Therefore, the machinery and equipment in the distribution center where the logistics company is located can perform faster work. Compared with manual picking and delivery, the use of drone technology for logistics distribution can enhance the use efficiency of mechanical equipment in the distribution center, thereby minimizing the use of energy and achieving energy conservation.
(4) Save labor cost.
The use of drone technology is equivalent to increasing the number of employees in the logistics field. Using drones to carry objects and transport them to other places through remote control systems can allow logistics companies to reduce labor and labor costs.
(5) Promote safety.
Using drones for delivery can also prevent accidents. There are often reports in the news that logistics distributors have traffic accidents in order to deliver goods. When drones are used, staff will no longer need to risk their lives for delivery, and thus promote safe production.
(6) Accuracy.
Drones are more efficient when delivering products to the right recipients. Compared with humans, drones are less likely to make mistakes, their delivery accuracy is higher, and incidents of wrong recipients will be greatly reduced.
However, several points should be taken into consideration:
(1) The use of drones in logistics may cause air traffic jams. Frequent unmanned aerial vehicle cargo activities may cause harm to air traffic. In 2016, Chengdu Shuangliu Airport experienced a vicious incident in which civilian airliners could not take off and land due to frequent drone flights. Flying drones and manned aircraft in the same area may cause unnecessary interference to manned aircraft. Therefore, the current policy of our country requires further discussion on whether it is necessary to liberalize the air control of drones.
(2) The use of drones for logistics may cause more infrastructure construction. For drones to carry out cargo distribution, they need corresponding infrastructure to provide their ups and downs. This is a large expenditure for logistics companies. At the same time, will the construction of the infrastructure used by these drones cause harm is also unknown, so this is also a shortcoming of the drones technology used in the logistics industry.
(3) The unemployment problem caused by the application of drone technology. If drones take over all logistics needs, it is certain that many warehouse jobs will no longer exist. Although the technology may create new employment opportunities, many of them will definitely require skilled labor and retraining to be used, so there are many People have to lose their jobs. This problem is also unavoidable in the application of drone technology in the logistics field.
Drones could be applied for light inventories, thus it would not take over place of robots unless it can carry heavy items. Besides, battery is the constraints of drones, how to improve life of battery will be the key point of productivity.
Picking in a warehouse can be one of the most time-consuming components of warehouse operations. Picking requires an employee to be highly familiar with the layout of the facility. In order to increase efficiency, having a drone connected with the warehouse WMS can increase the productivity and flexibility within the facility, especially for e-commerce warehouses who are competing to deliver items quickly: within 2 business days, same day, or sometimes within just a few hours. Drone software can create and pick the best path to reach the item in a time-efficient manner, does not require external infrastructure, and can fly autonomously.
There is some limitation for drones in terms of the weight (they cannot carry heavy items), which is why drones and robots can work in tandem for more efficient results. Drones can act as the guide dog, leading robots directly to the heavy item. This can be realistically achieved if integrated warehouse software management is built.
Utilizing the space above the process flow using drones as shown in the video allows for a more productive way to handle materials while simultaneously removing any space constraints that may have been there previously. The use of drones in this way for moving products especially in e-commerce warehouses to increase the productivity of getting orders out as they come in will definitely be an improved benefit.
Using drones in this way, I think will become increasingly more mainstream for any warehouses that have large, open spaces and could benefit from utilizing the entire space of their warehouses including the space above their merchandise; it is an easy, efficient way to cut down on constraints by fully utilizing square footage that is already available while implementing new technology.
I do not see much of an advantage inside a warehouse.
I know that there is this advantage of using the third dimension and the fact that now wide aisles will not be required. However, drones cannot be wired for power and have to be recharged every now and then. There are other restrictions too. For example, the weight of the package is the major restriction. Stronger software is required to avoid midair collisions. All of these would add up to the cost of the drones.
The vertical dimension could still be used in robots. The base can be wide but the body can be lean. It could be made of an “I” shaped robot with a telescopic body that could enable it to navigate in the 3d dimension. There would be no issue in charging the robot while on work.
Therefore, I do not see any major advantage brought by the drones in this industry and so believe drones are not yet ready for the current industry.
I think that using drones for picking materials and processing will be a trend in the future. The key issue is that is can reduce the costs of personnel, so the overhead of fixed cost can also be reduced. It is also flexible to operate these drones because once you alter routes for them, they could be easily fitted into the operation process. The problem is about the costs of purchasing these drones. For current stage, I believe it is not that cheap to get a unit of drone. The other issue is to get them work effectively in factories. Their capability should be improved all the time to handle more difficult tasks. This means we need a strong and powerful system to monitor them to make sure there won’t go wrong and make mistakes that probably take more costs. Therefore, what I believe is that drones have potential to be a trend in manufacturing industry if robotic system are sound and drones are developed more and more strong to operate accurately.
With the benefits of drone technology, I believe organizations would love to take it into their platforms. Especially in current situation of COVID we can agree that human contact has become a sensitive issue. In these situations drone technology would be super handy to the organizations. The article also mentions how it can help in relieving the constraints of aisles. This would be huge benefit in planning and utilizing the fulfillment centers. With the online shopping on the rise this would accommodate more inventory to flow through the current system. I am sure cosmetics, pharma and computer components will be potential clients as they have light weight inventory and needs delicate care. I do not see them as a competition to robots especially ground based robots. Like mentioned weight is a constriction for drones. Having both ground based and drones would bring in more more benefits and help managers maximize their utilization capacities of the warehouse.
Drones is destined to transform the face of logistics and e-commerce especially light weight kitting. Drones provides online retailers a quick, inexpensive and easy distribution option that also benefits consumers. Drones are projected to raise eCommerce sales by almost 25% over the next decade and to save online retailers some US$ 50 million in distribution costs( As per business wire). Drones would have a significant effect on eCommerce supplies and for warehouses too. Buyers may be secure with orders of greater value, and sellers may take advantage of lower shipping times. As a result, drones will improve pulse transactions. Buyers are going to enjoy being able to order an item and receiving it in less than an hour. An example would be delivering pizzas by Dominos or Amazon airs the teats case was successful and there are lot of organizations which are involved in developing such test cases for future use. I am doubtful drones will replace robots; in fact, it can complement the drone technology in optimizing the efforts.
Drones have the potential to reduce labor costs and other warehouse costs as nobody likes to do the administrative work. The only challenge with automated systems like drones is that they are good at detecting problems like missing inventory but not rectifying it. Another thing skeptical about drones is whether flying up and down an aisle really gives a good view of inventory as lot of rich information is stored in the rack apart from just physical inventory.
Airborne distribution such as drone is the way forward for the eCommerce industry, especially with the success of the UPS drone delivery service. While it faces many obstacles right now, there are enormous opportunities for growth. By enabling higher sales and reduced shipping rates, this form of distribution will lead to a substantial rise in sales for online companies. Delivery drones are definitely the buzzwords of these days, and e-commerce and technology giants are looking forward to accepting them. Yet there’s always a moment when we have drones floating around smoothly carrying products. Factors such as travel regulation, flight time, sound and avoiding technologies and package weight are significant hurdles that drone delivery needs to resolve. It would certainly give more options to customers such as warehouses or e commerce to delivery faster and efficiently, but scalability will still be a huge problem. Different regulations still would be a deterrent and until or unless this would be implemented on a broader scale along with gloves and hands with industry and govt, this will remain a challenge. Replacing robots would be a difficult but for sure it can complement the technology for improving the whole process.
We can see from the video that drones can indeed increase the productivity and flexibility needed for lightweight equipment. E-commerce warehouses may become their potential users, especially for lightweight kitting such as cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and computer components. Since drones can be used to plan the shortest paths and speed up delivery. At the same time, the video shows only the simplest simulation. Thus, in practice, it remains to be seen whether the drone’s routing will be accurate enough to be risk-free.
The advantage of drones over robots is that they are faster, while the disadvantage is that they cannot afford heavy equipment. The warehouse management system can use both drones and robots to plan the optimal combination and improve the efficiency of order picking.
I believe both robots and drones will not compete but prove complementary in improving the efficiency of the overall supply chain. While robots will present opportunities in the initial part of the supply chain for tasks such as unloading, stowing, racking etc, Drones provide an opportunity in facilitating last mile delivery service. Drones also present opportunities in stowing and picking of material in warehouses when the top portion of the warehouse comes under utilization and stacking of material till the roof of the warehouse becomes a possibility.
Drone technology has gained popularity in term of transportation. For small weight items, drones can be effective, but I have a certain line of caution in this regard. We’re talking about warehouse, which is a closed space. Even with 3rd dimension, there seems to be not a huge advantage in drones over robots. The other things I would consider are firstly, the cost benefit (given robot arms are now less costly), the service level fulfilled by drones over robots.
A well-executed drone system in warehouses will increase productivity in an indoor environment in my opinion. Although it will have its challenges that need to be considered. In case of a failure, the drones should not collide in the paths traversed. Also, there should be minimal human intervention with the picking and stacking motion of the drones since this could lead to safety incidents. If challenges like these are taken care of, along with good services provided by drone manufacturers and providers, drones will help in reducing labour cost in the long run. I believe, sterilized drone prongs are a safer alternative to human touch (despite it being with gloves) for cosmetics and pharmaceutical commodities for packaging especially keeping in mind the times of a pandemic. E-commerce companies can effectively utilize the capabilities of drones. For WMS to incorporate drones, drones should fly in planes with sufficient clearance from all other equipment. I think drone technology is still in a relatively nascent stage. But once it evolves, we would be able to better judge how effective these are.
Usage of third dimension really helps remove several space constraints of warehouses and drones will ensure improved picking/placing and timely operations leading to increased in productivity and flexibility. Specific material handling procedures are required to be ensured by pharma, cosmetics and computer components and robots are more efficiently designed to handle these when it comes to delivering at speed.
When higher product/packaging weight, dimensions and complexities are involved then having robots in place of drones seems justifiable looking towards investment cost angle as well. Areas such as ERP (WMS) platforms, inbound-outbound, SKU wise handling procedures etc. needs to be collated and fed into the data for robotics operations so as to ensure synergy in warehouse management systems.
Automating material handling, majorly the picking process in a warehouse help in synchronized operations and reduction in the picking time (as opposed to manual picking from the bins by the associates). Amazon AR facilities have robots that take the bins to an associate for taking the item out of that bin so that the associate doesn’t have to move among the bins to pick the items. This significantly reduces the time and hence helps to decrease the lead time to the customers. While the AR robots move in a two-dimensional space, the picking/ material handling process through drones will be in a three-dimensional space and will be able to reduce the picking time further. These innovations will help the associates do their jobs quicker. There are a few precautions that need to be taken care of while automating the operations like the Safety. There needs to be a designated space for the drones to fly that should not be frequented by the associates. Apart from that, there should be a check on the maintenance schedule and accidents.
Drones will provide the productivity and flexibility demanded lightweight kitting. They will reduce the labor cost associated with the warehouse. This way can move products especially in e-commerce warehouses to increase the productivity of getting orders out as they come in will definitely be an improved benefit. For me, I think that might be more efficient if all the outbound process is automatic.
Drones will be good in my opinion to provide flexibility. Robots and forklifts can handle heavy products, while lightweight products can be handled by drones. In this way the 3rd dimension is fully utilized while also using the full potential of robots and forklifts. For sure, new safety and maintenance protocols must be put in place to avoid people being hit by drones and to ensure everything is running correctly. But overall I think it can boost productivity by adding a new layer of automatization and leaving some capacity for the already in place machines.
Drones offer flexibility for space utilization, especially for the lightweight kitting. it would help to overcome the constraints for labor operations and increase productivity for warehousing management. E-commerce warehouses definitely would be the potential users, especially for cosmetics, pharma, and computer components. those products normally have a large variety of categories. use the third dimension would help it conduct a more efficient plant floor plan. And drones technology would help it to achieve this goal. Unlike robots, Drones can operate more accurately and precisely on small or lightweight pieces. However, in order to better performance in the warehouse. the floor layout should be designed well to suit the pathway for the drones. And the inventory should be well located and trackable to achieve high productivity.
In my opinion drones even-though are the future, for now they play a limited role due to their limitation of carrying only lighter loads and not being able to travel vast distances. (Recharging)
E-commerce warehouse could be potential users of drones but it would not be ideal to have two different mechanisms for picking. (Lighter and heavier loads).