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One of the benefits of robots for warehouses and factories is that they can add capabilities without requiring new infrastructure. However, robotics developers should still be aware of the extent of collaboration between humans and robots. For instance, inVia Robotics Inc. uses sonar and controlled speeds to make its Picker mobile robots safe. “Automation has been with us for many years, but what’s changing is robots’ ability to adapt to the environment, lowering investment costs,” said Lior Elazary, CEO of Westlake Village, Calif.-based inVia . “In the past, robots were on rails, and it cost a lot of money. It was hard to justify — if the cost of automation is too high, people can move boxes around.” “We used to have shuttle systems in warehouses, but it would take millions of dollars and several years to set up,” he told The Robot Report . “We’re working on self-driving cars rather than laying railroad tracks. Now, it’s very cost-effective. We can provide efficiency without having to alter existing production lines.” Elazary credited the accelerating pace of e-commerce order fulfillment with driving demand for more warehouse automation. Still, he said, both mobile robotics providers and prospective users should understand different approaches to increasing productivity. Distinguishing capabilities “When we started inVia, we looked at various warehouses to see where robots would be the best fit,” Elazary recalled. “We looked at workflows, such as goods-to-person, where a person picks items that go to packaging.” “There are a lot of systems to augment that, such as Kiva [ Amazon Robotics ] and Fetch , where the items come to the worker,” he said. “In addition, there are entrants such as Locus Robotics and 6 River Systems where a person does the picking with an autonomous cart.” “When we looked at that workflow, we […]