Gracias a un tweet de @judell encontré el blog de Ned Gulley http://www.starchamber.com. Temas variados, tendría tanto para comentar. Pero un post me llamó la atención:
Vean lo que hizo la gente de Kiva Systems:
[View:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWsMdN7HMuA]
Pueden leer una explicación de la implementación de este sistema en Zappos.com:
Warehousing and Distribution Centers: Zappos.com goes Space Age
Ahí, leo:
When an order for six items hits Zappos’ WMS, the WMS immediately communicates with the robotic fleet’s central server to fill the order. If the items are located in six separate inventory pods, the system dispatches six robots to locate the correct pods and transport them to the pick station, forming a queue in front of the pickers.
Unlike traditional pick-to-light modules equipped with expensive built-in light displays, this particular picking station uses an overhead rotating laser pointer to direct the worker to pick from the correct bin. A monitor at each station indicates the number of pieces that must be picked. A worker picks the item, scans the UPC, and places the piece in the appropriate shipping box. To minimize robot travel, a picker works on multiple orders that require many of the same item—in short, travel once, fulfill many orders.
Robots navigate the DC using technologies that do not involve wire, rails, or laser guidance. Inexpensive 2D barcode stickers are applied on the floor. The robots use scanners and cameras to look up to identify the pods they are carrying and down to track where they are going. And there’s no need to feed them. The robots charge themselves when they need it. Adkins explains that the charging schedule is built into the capacity of the number of robots so there are always robots being charged, but it doesn’t slow down the operation.
Perhaps the key to this automated storage and retrieval system is its massive parallel processing system. Mitch Rosenberg, vice president of marketing for Kiva Systems, Inc., the system provider for this picking solution, explains: “By keeping track of the velocity of each item, we can project the maximum number of times at one single moment that an item will be demanded for orders and slot the items accordingly into multiple pods to accommodate the filling of simultaneous orders for that item.”
Notable e ingeniosa solución. Ned Gulley está interesado en swarm robots, conjuntos de robots que actúen juntos, para conseguir un objetivo, una idea a investigar (de hecho, mi interés en lenguaje Logo, y NetLogo en particular, viene de conseguir simular una “bandada” de agentes). Es interesante ver cómo se coordinan, y cómo resolvieron simplemente su guía, usando códigos de barra en el piso. Y el uso de procesamiento en paralelo.
Lean el artículo de Wired:
Autonomous robots invade retail warehouses
Vean una explicación y comentarios de los operadores humanos:
[View:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fdd6sQ8Cbe0]
Más información en el sitio de Kiva:
Hmmm… podría necesitar un sistema de esos, para organizar mi biblioteca… 🙂
Hoy, robots en el depósito, mañana, programando sistemas completos en una consultar (espero que usando AjGenesis… 🙂
Nos leemos!
Angel “Java” Lopez
http://www.ajlopez.com
http://twitter.com/ajlopez