Service robot will play its role in smart Logistics

At the high-profile 2017 world robot conference, the rich exhibits and wonderful displays again ushered in a new climax of the intelligent industry this year. In fact, as an important subdivision of the global robot industry, service robot technology has made great progress and development in recent years. Now more and more service robots are entering production and life, and have achieved breakthrough applications in public services and other fields. Insiders said that with the promotion of national policies and market demand, the service robot industry has ushered in an important opportunity period and has broader development space. This can be seen from the "actions" of service robots in the express logistics industry.

Robots become "porters" of logistics warehouse

    not long ago, the scene of hundreds of robots working in Guangdong Huiyang intelligent warehouse of Cainiao network surprised many netizens.

    when the user's order is placed, the AGV handling robots, which are in the form of "sweeping robots", start to be busy. After receiving the instruction, they will automatically go to the corresponding shelf, lift the shelf, and then pull the shelf to the picker. Despite their small size, each robot can lift up to 250 kg, and can rotate flexibly, so that four shelves can be stocked. In addition, hundreds of robots work together, which not only won't collide and fight, but can recognize and yield to each other, and the scene is orderly. Robots that are "tired" from work can also automatically homing and charging, which makes people laugh.

    these robots are not only cute, but also work very efficiently with the picker. The number of goods picked in an hour is more than three times that of the traditional picker. You Yuquan, a logistics expert of cainiao.com, said that cainiao.com and its partners will copy the Huiyang model in a series of warehouses on tmall.com. After robots take up their posts one after another, it is expected that the time for consumers to receive goods on tmall.com will be further shortened this year.

    Shentong's "little yellow man sorting team" that appeared before also became popular on the Internet. On the big work platform, the dense sorting robots and workers cooperated tacitly, queuing up to receive tasks, orderly "shuttling", finding their own "pits" and putting goods in them... Not only "mengmengda", but also processing 20000 parcels per hour, which can reduce 70% of the daily warehouse operators.

    in fact, warehouse service robots are becoming a new favorite of the logistics industry, constantly "shining" at sorting, handling, stacking and other jobs in various warehouses, and this also gives many express delivery companies sufficient confidence to promise "one-day delivery".

Delivery by unmanned vehicles and drones is no longer far away

    fast and efficient delivery is the last key link in the logistics industry. Practitioners will naturally let delivery robots play a role. At present, unmanned delivery vehicles and drones have become new driving forces for all parties. Liu qiangdong, CEO of jd.com, said that with the continuous accumulation of technology, in the next five to eight years, it is likely that robots and drones will deliver goods.

    during this year's "June 18", JD's unmanned delivery vehicle successfully completed the first delivery task at Renmin University of China. During the whole delivery process, the unmanned vehicle can autonomously evade obstacles and passing vehicles and pedestrians, and finally completed the delivery task of express delivery. Not long ago, the photos of a group of novice intelligent delivery robots xiaog delivering express at a railway transportation court in Zhejiang also attracted widespread attention. Relevant technicians said that xiaog could accurately identify environmental changes and avoid smaller obstacles when walking on the road. It could not only take the elevator by itself, but also sense the crowded degree of the elevator, and would not compete with others for the elevator. However, industry insiders say that the current technology of delivery robots is still not mature enough. When they are faced with very complex delivery scenarios and various emergencies, they can not make timely and effective decisions and implement them quickly with the current technology. Therefore, at present, they only play an auxiliary role, and the main role is still a large number of manpower.

    UAVs have the advantages of light, small, fast, flexible and low cost. Naturally, they are favored by many large logistics e-commerce enterprises, competing to carry out UAV technology tests and lay out UAV logistics networks. It is understood that as the first batch of commercial enterprises to test and use drones to deliver express mails, Amazon has invested a lot of energy and enthusiasm in this regard. Now Amazon has accumulated a lot of data and experience in practical applications. According to a study by ark invest, a financial research company, Amazon's drone delivery costs less than $1 per piece, and the delivery time limit has also been improved to 30 minutes at the fastest. In addition to Amazon, US express giant ups and German shipping company DHL are also conducting a large number of tests on drone delivery express.

  and Chinese enterprises are not willing to lag behind in the layout of UAVs. It is reported that the three UAV test postal routes opened by China Post in Anji County, a mountainous area in Northwest Zhejiang Province, last September were specifically targeted at the trial operation in mountainous rural areas. Because of the sparse distribution of rural residents' homes and the small single point freight volume, long-distance vehicle transportation without full load is a waste of resources. The pilot Anji Qiguan village was originally a half-hour drive to the 17 mile mountain road, which can be reached in 15 minutes by UAV. The UAV has a load of 5kg and a maximum range of 20km. According to the trial operation, the transportation cost per kg of goods is only 3 yuan.

    JD's steps in UAV delivery are also getting faster and faster. In June last year, JD took the lead in carrying out UAV trial operation in Suqian, Jiangsu Province, and successfully transported goods to rural promoters through UAVs. According to relevant reports, the UAV in trial operation in Suqian can realize a fully automated distribution process without manual participation, including a series of intelligent actions covering the whole distribution process, such as automatic loading, automatic takeoff, autonomous cruise, automatic landing, automatic unloading and automatic return of the UAV. This greatly improves the distribution efficiency, reduces the logistics cost, and greatly improves the safety of flight. Subsequently, JD also signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Shaanxi provincial government on building a smart logistics system. According to the cooperation agreement, jd.com will work with the Shaanxi provincial government to build a general aviation logistics network for low altitude UAVs, and achieve full coverage in Shaanxi Province through medium and large UAVs with a payload of several tons and a flying radius of more than 300 kilometers. Recently, Liu qiangdong officially announced that JD will build 185 UAV airports in Sichuan, which will be delivered to any city in China within 24 hours.

    not long ago, SF successfully obtained the legal "license" for UAV delivery. At present, SF is testing the delivery effect of UAVs in a large number in the Pearl River Delta region, collecting flight data, and providing data support for the overall operation and commissioning system construction in the future. At present, the 100000 UAVs invested and purchased by SF have been in place and will be officially put into commercial use.

    it can be predicted that the day when users can open the window and receive express delivery may not be far away.

Smart logistics helps express industry take off

    in recent years, with the rapid development of e-commerce, the increasing logistics and distribution volume also makes express delivery enterprises face a big test. On the one hand, there is the fast-growing express business volume, and on the other hand, there are more and more consumers who are "impatient" to pick up packages. This has prompted the express industry to consider and solve a difficult problem - how to make a large number of packages reach every consumer faster and better, and fast and efficient delivery has become a necessity.

    in fact, the low-cost competition mode of the express industry, which makes little profit but sells much, is also difficult to maintain. As a labor-intensive industry, the express industry is now facing a labor competition in the takeaway industry. Without the support of advanced science and technology, once faced with labor shortage, the network operation may be paralyzed. In the spring of this year, some well-known domestic express enterprises experienced the phenomenon of overstock of express mails caused by the bursting of multiple outlets, and some even fell into the public opinion storm of "being closed down".

People in the industry believe that the express industry is facing tremendous pressure for survival because of the single product, the rapid decline in profits, the constant complaints from consumers, and the plight of some outlets in increasing revenue without increasing revenue. Therefore, the traditional express industry needs a technological revolution for transformation and upgrading, and intelligent logistics is the general trend.

    it is reported that at present, Alibaba, jd.com, Suning, Shun Fung, etc. have joined the construction of the smart logistics system one after another. It is obvious that the application of smart logistics not only improves efficiency, but also liberates manpower to the maximum extent. In the near future, a large number of jobs in the express industry will eventually be replaced by robots with higher efficiency and lower cost.