Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

newsworthy

German fulfillment robots cruise e-commerce shoe warehouse

Magazino to deploy "Toru" bots in larger DC as pilot test scales up.

German fulfillment robots cruise e-commerce shoe warehouse

German robotics company Magazino will deploy additional robots for e-commerce fulfillment work after completing a test project with Zalando, an online store selling fashion and lifestyle goods.

In the test, Munich-based Magazino deployed its "Toru" model of mobile picking robot at a Zalando warehouse in Erfurt, Germany. The robots were deployed parallel to humans and handled autonomous storage and retrieval of shoe boxes in shelving racks.


Over the course of the three-day pilot, two "Toru" robots had to prove their speed and reliability through a series of performance and availability tasks. Magazino will now add six more robots and deploy them all to Zalando's Lahr site in southern Germany.

At the new site, the 500-pound, mobile robots will initially be put into operation in a separated part of the shoe area within the warehouse where they will be trained, running at a maximum speed of 3.4 mph. In a second step, the robots will be connected to the warehouse management system (WMS).

Magazino's robots are also integrated with warehouse control system (WCS) software from sister company HighJump Software Inc., whose corporate owner the Körber Group is an investor in the robotic automation startup.

As they scale up their test jobs, the robots will enter an increasingly crowded sector of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) designed for various parts of the fulfillment process. Earlier entrants include Berkshire Grey, GreyOrange, Locus Robotics, and e-commerce leader Amazon.com Inc. itself, which in June announced it had developed two sleek new warehouse robot models called Xanthus and Pegasus.

Toru robots support "stow" (storage) and "pick" (picking) operations in the areas of shoe boxes, Magazino says. They use artificial intelligence (AI) and 3D camera technology to recognize, grasp, and transport individual shoe boxes. That capability gives the robots more flexibility in fulfillment jobs than automation technologies designed to move entire loads of pallets or crates, the company said.

Each Toru bot can use a vacuum gripper to lift boxes up to 12.8 pounds, carrying up to 16 objects simultaneously in its "backpack" of rotating shelves. The robot can run up to 18 hours per day, running on batteries with an eight-hour charge.

The Latest

More Stories

high-tech warehouse illustration

Robotics Roundtable: Automation drives forward

2024 has been a bumpy ride for many parts of the material handling equipment industry. It’s not necessarily that orders have been weak; it’s just that they aren’t up to the levels seen during the heyday of the pandemic-induced warehouse expansions. One of the brighter spots has been the robotics and automation sector, which has benefited from warehouse leaders’ continuing struggles with worker shortages and increased labor costs—both of which can be addressed through the judicious application of automated systems.

As we do every year, we recently gathered experts from the robotics and automation industry to weigh in on both the challenges facing the market and the opportunities that lie ahead. Here’s what they said.

Keep ReadingShow less

Featured

ITS Logistics truck carrying Sherwin Williams products
ITS Logistics

Transportation challenges, solved

Sometimes, all you need is the right partner to solve your logistics problems.

In 2021, global paint supplier Sherwin Williams faced driver and hazardous material (hazmat) capacity constraints: There simply weren’t enough hazmat drivers available in its fleet to maintain the company’s 90% fleet utilization rate expectations for key partner store deliveries while also meeting growing demand for service. Those challenges threatened to become even more acute in the future, as a competing paint supply company began to scale back its operations in the Pacific Northwest, leaving Sherwin Williams with an opportunity to fill the gap.

Keep ReadingShow less
Freight Science dashboard screen
Freight Science

High-tech solution helps truckload carrier drive change

The trucking industry faces a range of challenges these days, particularly when it comes to load planning—a resource-intensive task that often results in suboptimal decisions, unnecessary empty miles, late deliveries, and inefficient asset utilization. What’s more, delays in decision-making due to a lack of real-time insights can hinder operational efficiency, making cost management a constant struggle.

Truckload carrier Paper Transport Inc. (PTI) experienced this firsthand when the company sought to expand its over the-road (OTR), intermodal, and brokerage offerings to include dedicated fleet services for high-volume shippers—adding a layer of complexity to the business. The additional personnel required for such a move would be extremely costly, leading PTI to investigate technology solutions that could help close the gap.

Keep ReadingShow less
indigo software screenshot WMS

Aptean adds British WMS vendor in latest acquisition

The Georgia-based enterprise software vendor Aptean today said it had acquired Indigo Software Ltd., a British provider of purpose-built warehouse management and logistics software solutions.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Aptean said the move will add new capabilities to its warehouse management and supply chain management offerings for manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, retailers, and 3PLs. Aptean currently provides enterprise resource planning (ERP), transportation management systems (TMS), and product lifecycle management (PLM) platforms.

Keep ReadingShow less
schneider app screenshot for owner operators

Schneider seeks more business with owner-operators

Transportation and logistics service provider Schneider National Inc. is reaching out to owner-operators, encouraging them to do more business with the Wisconsin company using an updated digital platform.

Schneider says its FreightPower platform now offers owner-operators significantly more access to Schneider’s range of freight options. That can help drivers to generate revenue and strengthen their business through: increased access to freight, high drop and hook rates of over 95% of loads, and a trip planning feature that calculates road miles.

Keep ReadingShow less