The Technology Behind The Automated Warehousing Revolution

In this video Hepco's engineering expert, Alec, discusses the process of packages getting from warehouse to your doorstep and how innovative technology has revolutionised this process.

Over the past few years, consumers have pushed deliveries ever-shorter and this has placed demands on the logistics industry to innovate the processes involved in moving the goods from A to B. Warehouses have become more and more automated, removing the need for any time-consuming manual handling, with some processes becoming totally autonomous. 

When we take a look at warehousing applications, there are generally 2 main means of product handling: gantry robots and autonomous mobile robots, sometimes both systems working together. Gantry robots are fixed installations and will generally span the storage system. Often comprising of 3 axes, they need to be able to cover large distances at high speeds.

On the other hand, autonomous mobile robots are a more flexible solution capable of AI driven picking and generally more adaptable to work in either specialised, or the more traditional warehouse with racks and shelving units.