this paper will explain the patents applied by different enterprises in detail, and further discuss the impact on application scenarios after adopting these technologies.
wal-mart: infrastructure and distribution center automation focusing on independent delivery
according to CB insights, the e-commerce market in the United States alone is expected to reach $1 trillion by 227, and the current valuation is $661 billion. Aiming at this market, Wal-Mart is accelerating its delivery and process automation.
It is reported that since 216, Wal-Mart has applied for more than 65 patents related to drones and ground robots, 53 of which are related to drone systems, aiming at improving the reliability of drones and ensuring their safety.
independent "delivery chain"
For example, in December 218, Wal-Mart applied for a patent to develop a "delivery chain" for drones. In the delivery chain, each UAV can communicate with a centralized node to receive delivery information and identify which UAV the commodity should be delivered to.
Air-land transmission system
Also in 218, the company applied for a patent for the handover system between UAV and AGV. The patent can transfer the goods transported by drones to automatic guided vehicles to increase the way of parcel delivery.
crash landing system
The biggest challenge facing the UAV system in the course of use is the safety problem. In this regard, in January 219, Wal-Mart applied for the patent of crash landing system, in which the UAV will be equipped with sensors to determine the potential location of crash landing during the flight. More importantly, in the process of crash landing, the system can also send an alarm signal and its location.
autonomous robot system to replenish inventory in time
In addition to paying attention to the delivery of the last mile, it is also a major goal of Wal-Mart to realize the automation of distribution centers by using robot technology. In September 218, the company obtained a patent for an autonomous robot system, which can detect a small number of specific products in a certain infrastructure. If there is a shortage problem, the product can be obtained from another facility to replenish the inventory.
Amazon: Robots focusing on mobile goods and a number of patents related to drones
As a strong competitor of Wal-Mart in the field of e-commerce, Amazon acquired Kiva Systems, a robot startup, in 212, and since then, it has taken steps to automate its supply chain by deploying robot technologies such as computer vision, depth sensing, object recognition and other AI software.
According to CB Insights, since 214, Amazon has applied for more than 18 patents related to robots and drones, mainly focusing on autonomous mobile robots and drones.
Manipulation of objects that can be realized by robots
This patent provides a technology that can be used for robots to realize object manipulation. Target recognition is accomplished by analyzing one or more items using the rules of machine vision. In addition, if it is determined that the robot cannot complete the current operation, it can send a signal to request human assistance.
mobile robot group for moving goods
Another patent on robots applied by Amazon is mobile robot group, which is a technology that can improve the efficiency and flexibility of warehouse system, and is specially used for moving "oversized, overweight or uniquely shaped goods". Specifically, multiple robots cooperate to complete a job. For example, the instructions of the first task can be sent to the first robot, and then the instructions of the second task can be sent to the second robot based on the work progress of the robot and the dependency relationship with the first task. When the corresponding robots perform tasks, the first task and the second task may cause the mobile robot group to move the items incrementally.
UAV transportation system patent
In May 219, Amazon obtained a patent for UAV transportation system, which can help deliver the goods ordered by customers to the designated destination, in other words, it can be used to solve the last mile delivery problem. It should be noted that the UAV does not return to the goods handling place by its own strength, and its trip setting is a one-way route, which will stay at the destination after delivery, and then the retrieval unit (such as truck) will complete the retrieval.
in addition to the above patents, Amazon has also applied for many other patents on UAVs, including UAV position filter, airborne UAV charging, delivery UAV descent, designated delivery location as required, positioning aircraft sensors, automatic loading system and so on. Generally speaking, Amazon's huge investment in its supply chain may pose a competitive threat to players in other e-commerce markets.
JD.COM: The number of patents is small, all related to robots
Compared with Wal-Mart and Amazon, JD.COM, the leader of e-commerce market in China, is far behind them in terms of patents. From 214 to 219, the number of patents on drones and robots was four, and we will explain two of them in detail below.
sorting robots
first of all, sorting robots were submitted by JD.COM in March 218 and approved in December 219. Classification robot, as its name implies, is a kind of robot technology used to classify articles, which mainly involves the application in logistics, especially in warehousing. For this robot, it has at least one layer of tray and a shaft located at the axial center of the tray; At the same time, this tray is provided with a first slot with an openable first door; One end of the tray extends upward to form a tray wall; A space separator for separating storage bins is arranged along the tray shaft to the tray wall; The space separator is rotatably connected with the axis of the tray and can rotate around the axis of the tray. It is worth mentioning that the size of the storage box and the number of articles placed in the storage box can be adjusted, and the articles can be output through the openable first door, which can improve the output efficiency of articles in the storage box.
Method and device for controlling mobile robots
This is a technology mainly aimed at mobile robots, which can generate evaluation information for pedestrians through the sensing information of mobile robots, such as the intention information of nearby pedestrians and the types of pedestrian events, and then generate pedestrian behavior information according to the sensing information and evaluation information, wherein the pedestrian behavior information includes the predicted position information sequence and predicted behavior type sequence of nearby pedestrians in a preset future period; Then, information for control is generated according to the perceived information to control the mobile robot. This patent will improve the social acceptance of mobile robots to a certain extent.
As we mentioned above, the patented technologies of Wal-Mart, Amazon and JD.COM are not only used to solve the last mile distribution problem, but also some patents, especially robot-related technologies, can be used to improve efficiency to a certain extent, and efficiency has always been one of the driving forces that retailers are eager to realize warehouse automation. Therefore, from JD.COM to Wal-Mart to Amazon, many retailers have turned their attention to Warehouese Automation.
Wal-Mart launched the Alphabot system, picking more than 8 kinds of goods per hour
In January 22, Wal-Mart launched a robot system called Alphabot to improve the efficiency of distribution and solve one of the biggest problems faced by its online business. This system was developed by Wal-Mart in cooperation with Massachusetts-based startup Alert Innovation.
the alphabot robot system is currently operating in a warehouse covering an area of 2, square feet. By automatically moving carts, refrigerated and frozen goods are retrieved and collected from a high-density goods storage system, and then transported to the workstation in the store, checked by the staff, packaged and sent orders.
It is reported that more than 8 kinds of goods can be selected every hour through the cooperation of manpower and the system. In contrast, the data of Alert Innovation shows that the number of products that can be selected from the shelves of stores by manpower per hour is 8, that is to say, the selection efficiency of machines is 1 times that of manpower.
although Alphabot is a mixed system to a certain extent, that is, a system that needs both human and machine to complete the work, its future development direction is to completely complete the operation by the machine. In this regard, Brian Rother, senior manager of Wal-Mart's automation and digital operations, said, "This will have a transformative impact on Wal-Mart's supply chain. Alphabot simplifies the order process and realizes faster and more efficient order selection. "
Amazon uses robots to pack orders, and each robot may eliminate 24 employees.
In May 219, some media reported that Amazon was studying using robots to scan the goods on the conveyor belt and then put them into customized boxes. In fact, Amazon has been trying to apply more new technologies to freight warehouses, but the difference between these two new robot technologies is that each machine can eliminate at least 24 employees. On average, Amazon's 55 logistics centers will reduce more than 1,3 jobs.
previously, the work including scanning, sorting and packing has always been a link that cannot be automated, which is the first exposure of Amazon's plan. It is worth noting that these plans have not been put into action, because they need to be continuously verified before large-scale deployment.
it is understood that this new machine comes from Italy CMC Srl company and is called CartonWrap. According to some sources, the packaging speed of the robot is much faster than that of human beings, and it can complete 6-7 boxes of orders per hour, which is 4-5 times the labor efficiency. However, like Wal-Mart's robots, these robots also need manual help, such as checking orders, storing cardboard and glue, and repairing possible paper jams.
in addition, Amazon also announced the use of another robot, SmartPac, to mail items. With this robot, Amazon will be able to make most of its artificial packing automation.
Although it has taken a step towards automation in order packing, Amazon still believes that this technology is not ready, because it still needs to manually put the goods on the conveyor belt. In addition, the robot needs technicians to be present when working, so as to deal with the faults in time. These are all problems that need to be solved urgently.
JD.COM launched the world's first unmanned warehouse, or it will become a model for the future
Compared with the time when Amazon was exposed to use robots to pick up goods, JD.COM came earlier, and even the automated process was more comprehensive. In October 217, China e-commerce companies were all preparing for the biggest shopping festival of the year-"double 11" shopping festival. At this time, JD.COM showed people his secret weapon in advance: the world's first unmanned warehouse in Jiading District, which can realize the whole process automation from warehousing and storage to packaging and sorting.
The unmanned warehouse unveiled this time is the third phase project in the overall planning of JD.COM Asia No.1, with a building area of 4, square meters. The main body of the logistics center consists of four operating systems: receiving, storage, order picking and packaging. The storage system consists of eight sets of shuttle car warehouse systems, which can store 6, boxes of goods at the same time. More importantly, in the future, after the unmanned warehouse in JD.COM is officially put into operation, its daily order processing capacity will exceed 2, orders.
In this regard, JD.COM said that unmanned warehouse is a bold innovation in intelligent warehousing in JD.COM, and its automation and intelligent equipment coverage rate reaches 1%, which can cope with the flexible and changeable business forms of e-commerce. This is an efficient and orderly complement to the original style that Asia No.1 can digest huge orders for a long time.
in 219, in preparation for the "618 Chinese Shopping Festival", JD.COM put 23 Asia No.1 intelligent logistics parks in China into operation. In the next five years, JD.com Logistics will build Asia No.1 in more than 3 other core cities in China, which will fully radiate to major provinces, cities, districts and counties.
Based on the patents applied by the three giants, we can see that they are betting more on the delivery of drones and the automation of distribution centers. There are two reasons why they do this: on the one hand, robot technology can make customers enjoy more favorable prices, on the other hand, automation of distribution centers can help enterprises reduce the long-term costs in their supply chains. Therefore, for large retailers, embracing automation will be an inevitable choice to keep up with the market changed by technology, but there are still many challenges to be overcome in the process of pursuing automation, such as upfront costs and employee ownership arrangements.