Powerful like an ant: the little robot flitting across the warehouse floor is capable of carrying up to 500 kg at a time – more than 10 times the load its human peer would manage. 100 of these autonomous mobile robots (AMR) are set to support DB Schenker’s 650 staff at its newest contract logistics warehouse in Rudna in the Czech Republic. The high-tech warehouse includes seven packing lines with 162 stations, a vertical order picker and an automated sorter, and is set to offer fast, efficient, quality, customized supply chain logistics to retailers, B2C, e-commerce and for value-added services. It predicts that the warehouse will handle up to 59 million products per year.
The AMRs which operate on a conveyor line of 3,000 meters in length, can carry out their duties for up to three hours, after which their battery needs recharging. They take themselves to one of the charging stations in the warehouse when their battery is low, and can recharge in less than ten minutes. “The autonomous robots are controlled by software that records all shelf locations and the location of all goods. The robot closest to a shelf picks up the shelf and takes it to the desired picking station. The operator uses the pick-to-light system to remove the required quantity of goods from the shelf. After removing the goods from the shelf provided by the autonomous mobile robot, the operator places the box with the goods on the conveyor belt, which transports them to the next workstation for further processing, consolidation, or packaging,” the release explains. They support the 650 human employees in the warehouse, relieving them of the need of carrying out heavy or monotonous tasks.
Niklas Wilmking, Member of the Management Board for Contract Logistics, DB Schenker, said: “DB Schenker offers an excellent environment for innovation, technology, and highly qualified employees. By deploying automation and robotization, we have been able to optimize processes. This ensures particularly fast and punctual handling and at the same time creates better conditions for employees. After just a few weeks of operation, we were able to achieve a significant throughput for our customer from the electronics sector.”
