Libiao Robotics' AirRob Bin-to-Person System combines high-density storage with robotic delivery
While automation is a given for larger warehousing operations, smaller outfits (or those who feel they are functioning well enough without it) sometimes baulk at the thought of such technological upgrades.
“The caution from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is understandable and often justified,” says Yifei Yao, marketing vice president at Libiao Robotics.
“The main barriers are the high upfront investment, the complexity of integrating new technology with legacy systems, and the fear of operational downtime during implementation.”
On top of this, warehousing operations also sometimes worry that off-the-shelf solutions will not scale well or may become obsolete.
According to Yao, modern, modular systems address all these concerns.
Solutions like Libiao Robotics' T-Sort and AirRob, for example, are designed to be scalable and less disruptive. Suitable for incremental deployment, they can be integrated into existing infrastructure without requiring operational shutdowns.
“We design every system around the specific needs of each business,” says Yao. “Many of our core innovations were born directly from observing the difficulties customers encountered, which inspired us to create technology that genuinely solves those problems.”
Focussed on sorting and goods-to-person technologies, Libiao Robotics offers a portfolio of scalable automation solutions, including the T-Sort System. A modular sorting option, it is ideal for batch order picking, store replenishment, and returns processing.
It is well suited to the retail, courier, and apparel industries, and allows flexible scaling (i.e. adding or removing sorting robots and chutes to match fluctuating demand).
Meanwhile, the company’s 3D Sorting System represents an upgrade on the T-Sort platform. Integrating a three-dimensional sorter, it delivers higher sorting capacity in a smaller footprint. According to Yao, it is a good fit for e-commerce fulfillment and returns processing for large volumes of small-to-medium sized items.
Finally, Libiao Robotics also offers the AirRob Bin-to-Person System, which combines high-density storage with robotic delivery.
Featuring AirRob units (aerial robotic shuttles, which move vertically on racks to store and retrieve bins), as well as FloorBot units (which transport bins across the warehouse floor to workstations), its benefits include seamless scalability, high throughput, low deployment cost, and low energy consumption.
“Automation is not simply a technology purchase. It changes workflows, layouts, maintenance routines, safety requirements and the daily role of people on the warehouse floor.”
The importance of power
Evandro Nisimuni, business unit director industrial mobility at ENRX IPT GmbH, agrees that the caution associated with technological upgrades is well founded.
Available from ENRX, ENRMOVE is an advanced wireless inductive charging system
“Automation is not simply a technology purchase,” says Nisimuni. “It changes workflows, layouts, maintenance routines, safety requirements and the daily role of people on the warehouse floor.”
In this context, the main risk is not automation itself but automating a process that is not ready.
“Automating a flawed workflow does not solve the problem. It only makes that poor workflow move faster,” says Nisimuni.
For this reason, before automating, companies should first understand where goods move, where vehicles wait, how intensively equipment is used and where downtime occurs.
According to Nisumini, the importance of power in this context is often underestimated.
“A warehouse may invest in advanced forklifts, automated guided vehicles (AGV), autonomous mobile robots (AMR) or rail-guided systems, but if these still rely on manual cable charging, battery swaps or mechanical contacts, the process is not fully automated,” he says.
“True automation means integrating power and charging into the workflow.”
Products like PWRMOVE, ENRX’s solution for automated systems that require reliable power while moving, allows businesses to do exactly this.
“PWRMOVE supports rail-guided applications such as electrified monorail systems (EMS), shuttles, sorters, conveyors, automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS) and other carriers,” says Nisumini.
“The technology is used in demanding applications, including automotive assembly, production logistics, sortation, cleanrooms, food and pharmaceutical production, packaging and bottling lines, and amusement rides.”
Meanwhile ENRMOVE, which is also available from ENRX, is an advanced wireless inductive charging system developed specifically for AGVs, AMRs, and mobile robots.
“It enables wireless opportunity charging during natural stops such as loading points, waiting positions, transfer zones and staging areas,” says Nisumini.
The system is scalable, which means smaller vehicles can use one 3 kW charging pad, while larger vehicles can use multiple 3 kW pads at one position. In addition, because one power system can support several pads, there is reduced need for separate charging areas and dedicated infrastructure.
The indirect benefits of automation
Gitte Kirkegaard, CEO of Logitrans A/S, concedes that automation is not necessarily the right solution for every operation.
“If transport tasks are highly sporadic, purely ad hoc, or do not create operational bottlenecks, automation may deliver limited value,” says Kirkegaard.
LogiRobot intuitively automates pallet transport in warehouses and production facilities
“But even in these cases, there may be indirect benefits associated with automation – for example, to signal a modern workplace, protect and keep employees longer, or increase safety in internal logistics.”
Asked about Logitrans’ offerings in this market, Kirkegaard highlights LogiRobot, an AMR designed to intuitively automate pallet transport in warehouses and production facilities.
“The robot handles internal pallet movement safely and autonomously without requiring fixed infrastructure such as conveyors or floor-guided systems,” says Kirkegaard.
LogiRobot integrates into existing operations and can often be implemented significantly faster than traditional automation systems.
“It is so intuitive that customers can configure mapping and missions themselves. We designed it around the LEGO-brick principle. It is modular, standardised, flexible, and easy to build on over time,” says Kirkegaard.
The product is particularly suited to operations with recurring pallet transport between defined locations. Typical examples include transport from production plant to warehouse; from production plant to packaging; from packaging to finished goods storage; or from goods receiving to buffer storage.
“Compared to manual forklift-based transport, autonomous transport improves consistency, safety, and resource utilisation,” says Kirkegaard.
While manual operations need to consider factors like forklift availability, operator attention, and shift staffing, autonomous transport has no such limitations.
Routes run consistently, bottlenecks are reduced, safety (of pedestrians, operators, and property) improves, and management is better able to maintain operational control of the picking process.
“The strongest return on investment (ROI) often comes from reducing non-value-adding transport tasks and allowing staff to focus on core operations,” notes Kirkegaard.
Ensuring processes are sound
Matilda Suonpää, product manager warehouse logistics at Logisnext Europe Oy, says the tendency to equate automation with facility redesigns, workflow changes, and temporary shutdowns is not well-founded.
FleetController manages and monitors AGV operations in real time
“Rocla AGVs are designed to be integrated into existing environments with minimal to no modifications to current layouts,” says Suonpää.
“Additionally, they are highly scalable, enabling companies to start with a small deployment that addresses a specific challenge and then expand the system as their needs grow and confidence in the technology increases.”
Rather than an all-or-nothing proposition, she sees automation as a flexible tool that can be introduced gradually and work alongside existing processes and personnel.
That said, what are the genuine challenges associated with warehouse automation?
“The genuine barrier is rarely the technology itself, but rather poorly defined or structured logistics processes,” says Martine Van de Ven, consultant logistic solutions, solutions sales at Logisnext Netherlands B.V.
This makes it harder to identify which processes are suitable for automation and to integrate the solution with existing systems, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) and Warehouse Management System (WMS). In such cases, before automating, it may be necessary to first adapt the relevant workflows.
“Successful automation projects require thorough analysis, testing, commissioning, and employee training,” says Van de Ven. “However, with the right partner, these barriers can be addressed.”
While Rocla AGV Solutions specialises in automated guided vehicle solutions, the organisation is also part of LogisNext, a material handling solutions provider offering everything from manual forklift trucks and AGVs to fleet management software, racking, conveyors, and warehouse integration solutions.
“This breadth of expertise allows us to look beyond individual products and focus on designing the right solution for each customer's operation,” says Van de Ven.
At the heart of these offerings is FleetController, which manages, and monitors AGV operations in real time. Integrating with ERP and WMS tools, it optimises routing and order allocation, supports shared work areas, and uses traffic management to improve throughput and avoid congestion.
“Successful automation projects require thorough analysis, testing, commissioning, and employee training. However, with the right partner, these barriers can be addressed.”
Size is not a barrier
Thankfully, it appears that the tendency to associate automation only with the largest distribution centres is beginning to change.
“We're working with more mid-sized organisations, that want to solve labour challenges, improve productivity and create capacity for future growth,” says Michael Kemeny, managing director of KNAPP Australia. “The key is choosing technology that delivers value today and can scale as the business evolves.”
AeroBot is a next-generation automated storage and retrieval system
Asked for an example, he points to CDC Pharmaceuticals, a pharmaceutical wholesaler and distributor based in Christchurch, NZ.
“The company implemented a KNAPP solution comprising a central belt system (A-Frame), radio frequency (RF)-operated manual carton live storage (CLS) stations and automated dispatch lanes,” explains Kemeny. “The result was a 25 per cent increase in fulfilment capacity and throughput exceeding 9,000 units per hour.”
KNAPP offers various automation-related products including the OSR Shuttle Evo, a high-performance goods-to-person storage and retrieval solution; and AeroBot, a next-generation automated storage and retrieval system, designed to maximise storage density while providing flexibility and scalability.
KNAPP also offers AMRs, which unlike conventional shuttle systems are able to move freely in three dimensions throughout the storage grid, and in this way, enable efficient goods-to-person order fulfilment.
On top of this, thanks to their modular architecture, AMRs allow businesses to start with the capacity they need and expand as demand grows. For this reason, they are ideal for organisations that are looking to increase throughput, optimise warehouse space and address ongoing labour challenges but are not yet ready to commit to large-scale automation.
Kemeny says that, while productivity and return on investment are important, increasingly businesses are also looking to build safer, more resilient operations.
“Automation helps achieve all three – improving performance today while giving businesses the flexibility to adapt for the future,” says Kemeny.
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For this report we interviewed the following industry specialists: