ABB is expanding its portfolio of robotic solutions for logistics and e-commerce supply chains with the addition of two new AI-powered functional modules to its item picking family.
Featuring ABB’s own AI-based vision technology, the Fashion Inductor and Parcel Inductor offer solutions for item picking and sorter induction.
"With the growth of e-commerce set to drive increased parcel volumes of up to 9% per year, there is a need for greater levels of speed and accuracy in picking and inducting unknown random items," says Craig McDonnell, managing director, business line industries for ABB Robotics. "At the same time, companies are finding it harder to recruit people to perform these repetitive and non-ergonomic tasks, with 37% of global supply chain and logistics businesses experiencing significant workforce shortages. The expansion of our AI-powered item picking family addresses these challenges and enables companies to increase throughput and productivity, while reducing errors through the end-to-end automation of their processes."
Key takeaways:
- Using ABB´s AI-based vision technology, both the Robotic Fashion Inductor and Robotic Parcel Inductor can handle unknown and randomly arranged items in unstructured environments, ensuring seamless processing in high-throughput, high-mix logistics operations.
- Both functional modules deliver picking accuracy of over 99.5%, even in highly dynamic environments where item sizes, shapes, and packaging types vary daily. The AI system can also be trained to detect and reject non-inducible items, such as spherical or cylindrical products, ensuring reliable and efficient operations.
- The Robotic Fashion Inductor enables singulation and sorter induction for polybagged apparel and accessories items at speeds of up to 1,300 picks per hour. The Robotic Parcel Inductor is built for small parcel singulation and sorter induction, processing boxes, bags, envelopes, and packages at up to 1,500 picks per hour in post and parcel logistics centers. Integration with ABB’s motion planning software enables collision-free automatic path planning once each item has been identified by the AI vision system.
- Designed for rapid deployment, both functional modules come pre-integrated, minimizing commissioning time, operational errors, and setup complexity, with commissioning possible in as little as one week. Using ABB’s Application Controller Platform (ACP), different components including robots, grippers, and cameras can be seamlessly integrated through a single computer and user interface.
