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Towards the full automation of distribution centers

Authors:
     
Towards the Full Automation of Distribution Centers
   

 



 In this paper it is rst identied the trade-off
among costs, exibility and performances of autonomous robotic
solutions for material handling processes, where adding value
with automation is not as trivial as in production processes:
hence the requirement for automated solutions to be simple, lean
and ecient becomes even stricter. Then a method for modelling
and comparing differential performances and costs of manual
and autonomous solutions is developed. As a result of the
method, a smart man-machine collaborative interface is designed
and its impact evaluated on a specic case of study. Results are
then generalized and prove the strong conclusions that in
unconstrained environments, where full standardization cannot
be achieved, the risk of investing in autonomous solutions can
only be mitigated by creating a fast and smart man-machine
collaborative interface.
    
     
 

       

       
    
         
       
        
   
    
        
         
          

         
           
         
    
        
     
 
  
      
         

 
 
          

      
       
        
        
 
    
        

         

     
     
           
       
       
       
       
 
       

  
         
 
       
 
    
      

 
 


       
        

          
  
     
  

     
      
      

       

         
 
       
       
       
     
       
 
 
         
        
        
       
   

       
        
      
       
   
  
  
          
     

   
          
         

 

        
        
         
        
       

    
 
 
        
        
       
    
     
  
 
          
        
  
         
          
         

          l


 
        


     
         
       

  
       
    
   

        

       
  
 
        
  
       
         

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 
          
         


 
         

     

       
 
         
        
  

     
       
         
        

        

         
       
         

 
 
        
  

        
  

         
      
       
         

 
      
        
        
        
        
        
        
   
        
 
 
 
    
       
   
    

  
  
       
   
         
       
        
    
         
      
        
         

       
          

   
  

            
      
        
     

          
 


        
         
 

      

        

       



      
         
 
         
         
       
        
       
   
  
         


         
       

 
    


     
       
    
   
      
       
    
          
         
       
        
   


       
       
         
        
        
        

        
    

          
  
       

     

         
        
       
      
        
      
        
         
         
       
       
  
      
      
         
        

          
      
      
        
        
     
 
      

         
     

       
         
        

          
     
   
      

        
 
  
          
          
  

 
  

          

   
        
         
 
       
       
 
 
       
         

          
        
   
        
 
         

     
       
 


 
          
      
         
 
          
        
 
   

        
    
          
     

         
      
       
 

        
     
   
          
          
 
  
         

 
       
        
      
     

       
         
      
  
         


  
        
       
  
       
    
        
       
   
        
       
       
        

     

          
         
       
        
         
 
        
         
        
  
    
 
 
    
        
   


        
    
 












       
 
 
             
 
           
         
 
         
      
       


     
          
           
          
       
        
 
          
         

         
        

          
         
  

        

       

         
      
    
         
        
     

         
         
       
      
      
 
 

 
         
      

        

          

        
         
       
   
   
      
      
         
       
   
       
         
 

       
 
 

          
    
 
 
  
       

   

       
      


   

    
      
       
   


     
  

   

 

  
 
 
 
 


 

         
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         

   
        
 
        

 
         
      
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 
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... Collaborative robots are a special type of robot that cooperates collaboratively with workers in a shared workspace and assists them in performing daily activities to perform activities more efficiently, flexibly, and safely. Increased interaction and collaborative cooperation between workers and robots is the foundation of Industry 4.0, [11]. Collaborative robots are embedded with sensors that allow them to perceive the environment, react to dynamic conditions, and recognize objects in their vicinity, [11], [3]. ...
... Increased interaction and collaborative cooperation between workers and robots is the foundation of Industry 4.0, [11]. Collaborative robots are embedded with sensors that allow them to perceive the environment, react to dynamic conditions, and recognize objects in their vicinity, [11], [3]. These autonomous robots are very intelligent, perform activities faster and more accurately than robots, and take up less space, [12]. ...
Conference Paper
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Taking into account the fact that safety and health at work is one of the main components of financial success in all contemporary industrial systems that operate on lean principles, special attention is paid to the continuous improvement of safety and health of workers. A comprehensive transformation of industrial production and complete automation and digitalization of production processes is supported by Industry 4.0. Industry 4.0 is characterized by intelligent networking of physical objects over the Internet, interactions, communications and data exchange between all physical entities and the application of modern advanced technologies (collaborative robots, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, virtual reality, augmented reality, Internet of Things, big data, cloud computing, 3D printers, drones and autonomous vehicles). It creates significant changes in production, work organization, and the way how workers perform their activities. Moreover, Industry 4.0 has a significant impact on workplace safety. The paper presents the connection between workplace safety and Industry 4.0 through the analysis of the most important research papers in this field. Also, the paper presents the most significant modern advanced digital technologies of Industry 4.0 that have applications in the field of safety and health of workers (sensors and wearable technologies, exoskeletons etc.). Special attention in the paper is paid to emphasizing the positive effects and benefits of the application of these modern advanced technologies. The main goal of the application of these modern innovative technologies is to improve workplace safety through the prevention of injuries at work, occupational diseases and deaths and to improve the general health and well-being of workers. The paper is a part of research activities in the field of research of possibilities for improving the effectiveness of production processes by applying modern advanced technologies of Industry 4.0.
... Although increased interaction and collaboration between workers and machines is the basis for Industry 4.0 (Bonini et al., 2015), this does not mean simply more human-machine control interfaces but new ways of sharing tasks in order to complete complex operations more rapidly (Waschneck et al., 2017;Christiernin and Augustsson, 2016;Gattullo et al., 2015). In order to avoid creating unforeseen dangers in the manufacturing setting, more careful planning of tasks and more complete clarification of the limitations of each participant will be necessary. ...
... Robots are getting faster and more precise as well as taking up less and less space. They will soon have the ability to move about, handle materials, respond to dynamic surroundings (Nielsen et al., 2017;Bonini et al., 2015), follow intuitive protocols and utilise cutting-edge navigation and perception technologies to recognize their tasks and their surroundings (Beetz et al., 2015). Machinery downtime and servicing could be reduced considerably if intelligent systems were to predict maintenance needs (Lira and Borsato, 2016). ...
Article
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Concrete is the core component of any civil engineering construction. Conventional concrete can be modified depending upon the needs and requirements of the construction. Such concrete is called advanced concrete and this report aims to study advanced concrete and its composites. The main objective of this report is to perform a bibliographic survey on the latest research literature available under the domain of advanced concrete composites for improved performance. Timespan considered for the survey is from the year 2015 to 2020. The bibliographic survey consists of literature from online platforms such as the Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus database. Both these platforms are remarkable and reliable sources. But in comparison, Scopus is considered to be the largest database with citations whereas WoS is more authoritative and has a unique search method for citations and references. It provides statistics of publications from journals, countries, authors, and citations to date. This analysis leads to significant findings showing need and scope for research in advance concrete domain.
... With the advent of the Industry 4.0 era [22,23], the Internet of things and artificial intelligence (AI) have greatly changed the methods of working, producing [24,25], and thinking for humans. The complexity of the production system, as well as the interaction and collaboration between humans and machines is increasing [26,27], and the forms of human-machine collaboration to complete tasks has changed [28]; thus, the traditional accident causal model cannot satisfy the investigation and analysis requirements of complex system accidents and pollution [8], and the application of cleaner production faces huge challenges [29]. Therefore, the research content of safety ergonomics is no longer applicable to the analysis of new relationships among humans, machines, and the environment, and it is embodied in the following aspects: first of all, as intelligent communication technology overcomes the differences in time and space, the real-time operation of equipment and information integration becomes possible [30], and the traditional methods of interaction ways between humans and machines have been transformed into intelligent interaction. ...
Article
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Safety ergonomics is an important branch of safety science and environmental engineering. As humans enter the era of big data, the development of information technology has brought new opportunities and challenges to the innovation, transformation, and upgrading of safety ergonomics, as the traditional safety ergonomics theory has gradually failed to adapt to the need for safe and clean production. Intelligent safety ergonomics (ISE) is regarded as a new direction for the development of safety ergonomics in the era of big data. Unfortunately, since ISE is an emerging concept, there is no research to clarify its basic problems, which leads to a lack of theoretical guidance for the research and practice of ISE. In order to solve the shortcomings of traditional safety ergonomics theories and methods, first of all, this paper answers the basic questions of ISE, including the basic concepts, characteristics, attributes, contents, and research objects. Then, practical application functions of ISE are systematically clarified. Finally, following the life cycle of the design, implementation, operation, and maintenance of the system, it ends with a discussion of the challenges and application prospects of ISE. The conclusion shows that ISE is a cleaner research direction for ergonomics in the era of big data, that it can deepen the understanding of humans, machines, and environment systems, and it can provide a new method for further research on safety and cleaner production. Overall, this paper not only helps safety researchers and practitioners to correctly understand the concept of intelligent safety ergonomics, but it will certainly inject energy and vitality into the development of safety ergonomics and cleaner production.
... The robot is the primary task performer. Unlike classic robots, cobots have built-in sensors that allow them to recognize and analyze workers' intentions and adapt their activities to the capabilities of the workers (Bonini et al., 2015) by monitoring the physical and cognitive workload of the workers. This collaborative robot meets the requirements of international robot standards ISO 10218-1 and ISO/TS15066. ...
Conference Paper
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The fourth industrial revolution (I4.0) implies more collaborative and connected manufacturing. Industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing integrate human and intelligent devices to enhance workplace safety in a collaborative industrial environment (Safety 4.0). Collaborative robots (or cobots) have been developed with intuitive interfaces that support human operators in the physical workload of manufacturing tasks, such as handling hazardous materials or executing repetitive and monotonous actions with high reliability, such as assembly activities. However, the deployment of cobots must include application safety criteria to be taken into account in order to improve their interaction with operators. In this way, Human-robot collaboration (HRC) is being adopted in the smart manufacturing industry as a solution that mixes, within a shared workspace, the dexterity and cognitive faculties of human operators and the accuracy and repeatability skills of robots, guaranteeing no-danger conditions and absence of collision during this type of collaboration. The aim of this paper is to propose human-robot collaboration architecture and show how it will be possible to improve workers’ safety through implementation of the proposed architecture. Intelligent devices are integrated in human-robot workstations in order to protect the operator from hazards, injuries and occupational diseases. The proposed paper highlights safety guidelines regarding HRC and their application using smart equipment, such as sensors, computer vision systems, and so on. Overall, interaction with different degrees of collaboration and technologies increases not only the flexibility but also the complexity of the system. Therefore, this paper also focuses on identifying the main safety requirements in human-robot collaborative systems design
... Additional module for workstation represents a collaborative robot (cobot) station that enables the design of the work tasks where the operator and the robot will perform activities together. Unlike classic robots, cobots have built-in sensors that allow them to recognize and analyze workers' intentions and adapt their activities to the abilities of workers (Bonini et al., 2015) by monitoring the physical and cognitive workload of workers. The collaborative robot performs assembly activities that are monotonous, tiring, and repetitive or involve workers straining and bending. ...
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The industry increasingly insists on academic cooperation to solve the identified problems such as workers' performance, wellbeing, job satisfaction, and injuries. It causes an unsafe and unpleasant working environment that directly impacts the quality of the product, workers' productivity, and effectiveness. This study aimed to give a specialized solution for tests and explore possible solutions to the given problem in neuroergonomics and human–robot interaction. The designed modular and adaptive laboratory model of the industrial assembly workstation represents the laboratory infrastructure for conducting advanced research in the field of ergonomics, neuroergonomics, and human–robot interaction. It meets the operator's anatomical, anthropometric, physiological, and biomechanical characteristics. Comparing standard, ergonomic, guided, and collaborative work will be possible based on workstation construction and integrated elements. These possibilities allow the industry to try, analyze, and get answers for an identified problem, the condition, habits, and behavior of operators in the workplace. The set-up includes a workstation with an industry work chair, a Poka–Yoke system, adequate lighting, an audio 5.0 system, containers with parts and tools, EEG devices (a cap and smartfones), an EMG device, touchscreen PC screen, and collaborative robot. The first phase of the neuroergonomic study was performed according to the most common industry tasks defined as manual, monotonous, and repetitive activities. Participants have a task to assemble the developed prototype model of an industrial product using prepared parts and elements, and instructed by the installed touchscreen PC. In the beginning, the participant gets all the necessary information about the experiment and gets 15 min of practice. After the introductory part, the EEG device is mounted and prepared for recording. The experiment starts with relaxing music for 5 min. The whole experiment lasts two sessions per 60 min each, with a 15 min break between the sessions. Based on the first experiments, it is possible to develop, construct, and conduct complex experiments for industrial purposes to improve the physical, cognitive, and organizational aspects and increase workers' productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness. It has highlighted the possibility of applying modular and adaptive ergonomic research laboratory experimental set-up to transform standard workplaces into the workplaces of the future.
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La denominada Cuarta Revolución Industrial exige profundos cambios en las organizaciones empresariales para su permanencia en el mercado. Dada la confluencia de las numerosas tecnologías que supone la Industria 4.0, el proceso es complejo y afecta de lleno a la organización del trabajo. Ello supone la aparición de nuevos perfiles profesionales y la eliminación de otros, como consecuencia de las nuevas formas de organización del trabajo. Probablemente se reducirán los trabajos de tipo manual, aunque aparecerán nuevos perfiles de alta cualificación, incrementándose el trabajo colaborativo, la flexibilidad en el tiempo de trabajo, la participación y la transparencia de los resultados del trabajo individual, aunque también es posible una mayor precarización de ciertos puestos de trabajo, como está sucediendo especialmente en el caso de la gig-economy. Estas nuevas formas de organización del trabajo suponen afrontar el reto de anticiparse a las posibles situaciones de riesgos que permitan tomar las medidas preventivas oportunas.
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In order to enable the application of an autonomous cognitive system to the process of unloading of containers, the complexity of an industrial unloading scenario has to be simplified. In this paper is presented an approach whose first step is the identification of all the factors that make this application challenging. The state of the art in cognitive robotics needs to be exploited and, as it is developed in a software direction, in the second step of the approach all those factors which are concerned with hardware challenges are cut out. The presented result is a simplified scenario which still embodies those challenges to be fulfilled in the design of a cognitive software architecture. Next steps are also planned in order to lead the future research back to the original industrial complexity of unloading scenarios.
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The transfer of research results to market-ready products is often a costly and time-consuming process. In order to generate successful products, researchers must cooperate with industrial companies; both the industrial and academic partners need to have a detailed understanding of the requirements of all parties concerned. Academic researchers need to identify the performance indicators for technical systems within a business environment and be able to apply them. In service logistics today, nearly all standardized mass goods are unloaded manually with one reason for this being the undefined position and orientation of the goods in the carrier. A study regarding the qualitative and quantitative properties of goods that are transported in containers shows that there is a huge economic relevance for autonomous systems. In 2008, more than 8,4 billion Twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) were imported and unloaded manually at European ports, corresponding to more than 331,000 billion single goods items. Besides the economic relevance, the opinion of market participants is an important factor for the success of new systems on the market. The main outcomes of a study regarding the challenges, opportunities and barriers in robotic-logistics, allow for the estimation of the economic efficiency of performance indicators, performance flexibility and soft factors. The economic efficiency of the performance parameters is applied to the parcel robot – a cognitive system to unload parcels autonomously from containers. In the following article, the results of the study are presented and the resultant conclusions discussed.
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In capital budgeting decisions theoretical superiority of the net present value (NPV) criterion is based on the assumptions of perfect and efficient markets, certainty of project life, no capital rationing, etc. Most of these assumptions are not true in practice. The NPV criterion ensures profitability but not liquidity. Much maligned payback period (PP) criterion emphasizes liquidity but not profitability. Discounted payback period (DPP) rule however meets both these and most of the characteristics of an ideal decision rule. Almost all textbooks in financial management discuss the DPP but coverage is inadequate, incorrect or incomplete. This paper presents the basics of the DPP criterion and extends it further by 1) examining its properties in detail 2) comparing the DPP with other capital budgeting rules 3) deriving formulae for computing the DPP under different pattern of cash flow and nature of discounting; and 4) the most important extension is derivation of the conditions under which reciprocity of the DPP and the IRR will prevail, just in the same manner as the famous reciprocity of PP and the internal rate of return (IRR).
Book
Models and Sensitivity AnalysisMethods and Settings for Sensitivity Analysis – an IntroductionNonindependent Input FactorsPossible Pitfalls for a Sensitivity AnalysisConcluding RemarksExercisesAnswersAdditional ExercisesSolutions to Additional Exercises
Available online: http://robotics.wynright.comlpdfIRTU.pdf [7] Parcel Robot-PR500 information Available online: English:http://www.thyssenkrupp­ systemengineering.com/htmllimg/pooIlFact sheet Parcel Robot
  • Wynright-Robotic Truck
  • Unloader Information
Wynright -Robotic Truck Unloader information. Available online: http://robotics.wynright.comlpdfIRTU.pdf [7] Parcel Robot-PR500 information. Available online: English:http://www.thyssenkrupp­ systemengineering.com/htmllimg/pooIlFact sheet Parcel Robot.pdf German :http: //www.thyssenkrupp ­ systemengineering.comlhtmllimgjpoollProduktblatt PaketRoboter.pdf [8] Parcel Robot-PR400 information. Available online: German: http://www.intechlog.eu/englishlconsultingservices/automated-robotic-logisticslindex.html#08572 7 a231 095182f
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M.Y. Khan, "Theory & Problems in Financial Management". Boston, 1993: McGraw Hill Higher Education. ISBN 978-0-07-463683-1.
Market Study on European Service Robotics", Fraunhofer IPA [euRobotics-The European Robotics Coordination Action Available online
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M. Hagele, "Market Study on European Service Robotics", Fraunhofer IPA [euRobotics-The European Robotics Coordination Action, December 2012]. Available online: http: //www.euroboticsproject.eu/cms/uploadlPDF/euRobotics Deliverable 03.3.1 MarketStu dyEuropeanServiceRobotics.pdf
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