5 ms·

Interresting that energy wise it is feasible to transport a whole lot of items that are not being used to the picker and back. But I am pretty sure that this ha

Interresting that energy wise it is feasible to transport a whole lot of items that are not being used to the picker and back. But I am pretty sure that this has been taken into account when designing the size of the storage pods. Pretty impressive!

chrisfarms 12y ago
Yeah I thought this too. I guess treating the warehouse as a 2D grid vastly simplifies everything from algorithms to robotics so much that the reliability out ways any inefficiencies. Presumably they could make the stacks shorter and have more "floors" to increase efficiency of each trip.
jsprogrammer 12y ago
I'm interested in what the wear is on the robots. How often do the parts need to be replaced or repaired? How long can you run without any replacements or other maintenance? What does it cost, in money and resources, to replace the fleet?
- mkramlich 12y ago
  I bet the costs are lower than equivalent humans (eg. medical insurance, SS, lawsuit risk, paid time off, theft, recruiting/training churn, etc)
  - jsprogrammer 12y ago
    I'd be interested in the actual numbers.
discodave 12y ago
It's more obvious when you consider that the alternative is people walking around the FC filling carts with items. I imagine that the cost of energy is minimal compared to the cost of labour in this case. But even if it wasn't, you still have 60-100kg people walking all over the FC so the difference in energy usage is minimal... but Amazon doesn't (directly) pay for the calories that their employees burn walking around the FC. However one could imagine a Kiva v2 that figured out some way to not move whole racks at a time. The only reason they move the whole rack is to avoid having to build a robot that can pick individual items off of the shelf individually.
- anon4 12y ago
  People walking around might be happier than people who have to stand in one place all day, though. It would be interesting to invert the system and build a navigation system for the workers to guide them down the aisles in the most optimal way to pick up the items - it should take the same amount of time, but leave you with workers in better physical condition.
  - Animats 12y ago
    That's what Amazon had before Kiva robots. Here's the job description: "We go around with a little cart to a conveyor belt and grab 2 plastic tubs. With a scanner in one hand and pushing the cart in the other your job is to go around to wherever the scanner tells you and "pick the items" This involves scanning the tub, then the location bar code, searching for the right item (which most of the time is easy to find but sometimes hard) and scanning it. Then doing the same thing for the next 10hours of your day minus the 2 15minute breaks and the 30min lunch break." The people are just peripheral devices of the computer systems that run the distribution center.

chrisfarms 12y ago

Yeah I thought this too. I guess treating the warehouse as a 2D grid vastly simplifies everything from algorithms to robotics so much that the reliability out ways any inefficiencies. Presumably they could make the stacks shorter and have more "floors" to increase efficiency of each trip.

jsprogrammer 12y ago

I'm interested in what the wear is on the robots. How often do the parts need to be replaced or repaired? How long can you run without any replacements or other maintenance? What does it cost, in money and resources, to replace the fleet?

mkramlich 12y ago
I bet the costs are lower than equivalent humans (eg. medical insurance, SS, lawsuit risk, paid time off, theft, recruiting/training churn, etc)
- jsprogrammer 12y ago
  I'd be interested in the actual numbers.

discodave 12y ago

It's more obvious when you consider that the alternative is people walking around the FC filling carts with items. I imagine that the cost of energy is minimal compared to the cost of labour in this case. But even if it wasn't, you still have 60-100kg people walking all over the FC so the difference in energy usage is minimal... but Amazon doesn't (directly) pay for the calories that their employees burn walking around the FC. However one could imagine a Kiva v2 that figured out some way to not move whole racks at a time. The only reason they move the whole rack is to avoid having to build a robot that can pick individual items off of the shelf individually.

anon4 12y ago
People walking around might be happier than people who have to stand in one place all day, though. It would be interesting to invert the system and build a navigation system for the workers to guide them down the aisles in the most optimal way to pick up the items - it should take the same amount of time, but leave you with workers in better physical condition.
- Animats 12y ago
  That's what Amazon had before Kiva robots. Here's the job description: "We go around with a little cart to a conveyor belt and grab 2 plastic tubs. With a scanner in one hand and pushing the cart in the other your job is to go around to wherever the scanner tells you and "pick the items" This involves scanning the tub, then the location bar code, searching for the right item (which most of the time is easy to find but sometimes hard) and scanning it. Then doing the same thing for the next 10hours of your day minus the 2 15minute breaks and the 30min lunch break." The people are just peripheral devices of the computer systems that run the distribution center.