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Robotics at a tipping point DOT announces nearly $500 million in TIGER grant funding for 41 projects Lift Truck Battery Management Delivers Staying Power 5 Food & Beverage Technology Trends Port Tracker report shows solid volumes but concerns over tariffs are looming More News “There’s something happening here, What it is ain’t exactly clear”….Stephen Stills Over the years, I’ve watched the adoption of any number of new technologies, from WMS to voice recognition systems to shuttle systems. In all three examples, technologies that we take for granted today were, in reality, fairly slow to become part of what Jim Rice at MIT calls “the dominant design” – just another tool in the tool kit. I’m going to go out on a limb, but I’m now convinced that robotic materials handling is at a tipping point in materials handling, and it feels as if the adoption rate is about to take off. Over the last two years, we’ve featured a variety of robotic applications, ranging from piece picking robotics at an eye wear manufacturer; mixed layer palletizing at L’Oreal; mobile robots in manufacturing at GE Healthcare and Whirlpool; a piece picking robot in order fulfillment at Rochester Drug; a collaborative mobile robot from Locus Robotics at Quiet Logistics, and robotic distribution at Medline. In the March issue of Modern, we are featuring DHL Supply Chain’s strategy for mobile robots in order fulfillment purposes, including its use of Locus. In fairness, you could argue that it’s probably been ten years since Kiva first exhibited at one of our trade events. How is this different? I think it’s different in two important ways. The first is the over-night emergence of one start-up after another, thanks to funding that is pouring in from an investment community that previously ignored our space. The second […]