Description

As the inventor of climbing bots that attach to warehouse racking, Libiao has extended the capabilities of the innovative and much-copied IFOY nominated AirRob automated storage and goods-to-person picking system with the launch of AirRob PRO. The chief difference between AirRob and AirRob PRO is that the latter has been developed to pick both cartons and totes.

The system comprises rack-mounted climbing robots – min. one per aisle – which pick cartons or totes of multiple sizes from both sides of the aisle using a pivoted boom onto the bot’s built-in mini-conveyor. A Libiao-developed double-sucker pick arm ensures a clean and secure grip, meaning the carton is extracted from the racking following a reliably straight path. The goods are then transferred to a workstation via a fleet of Libiao’s ‘mini yellow’ floorbots. These floorbots are equipped with their own mini-conveyor system, ensuring smooth and secure handling, a particular requirement in warehouses processing high-value goods or those where premium packaging is used, such as perfumes and other gifts.

Innovations

Four distinct innovations distinguish the AirRob PRO.

1. Pivoting pick arm: thanks to its pivoting pick arm, it can pick or put away cartons and totes from both sides of the aisle. Previously a bot picking to the right would need to drop on the right. AirRob PRO can pick on the right and drop on the left, which reduces the number of workstations required per aisle, freeing up space for more added-value activities.
2. Double offset suction cup head: The double offset suction cup head a allows clear withdrawal of a carton, even if it sits misaligned within a location. It also ensures the carton is extracted from the racking following a reliably straight path even when the load inside is unevenly distributed. This allows the cartons to be stored super-close, enabling denser storage of goods within a warehouse’s existing footprint.
3. Built-in conveyor: The built-in conveyor of the climbing AirRob bots firmly supports even low-integrity cartons without the risk of them spilling their goods, and also ensures reuseable totes no longer suffer wear and tear as they would if they were dragged across a fixed element.
4. Flexible picking technology: As the climbing AirRob bot comprises two separate elements, it is able to adjust its grip or suction mode in-flight to pick either a tote or a carton of multiple dimensions. Its built-in visioning system enables it both to determine the dimensions and physical properties of the item to be picked, as well as scan a barcode. This means a single bot can be utilised regardless of whether goods are in totes or cartons.

Market relevance

Since its launch at the IFOY AWARD 2023, the original AirRob system has been deployed at warehouses around the world. Customers such as footwear brand Skechers relies on it for both store fulfilment and eCommerce orders, whilst numerous 3PLs have installed an AirRob system for not only its efficiency and compact design, but also because it can be easily scaled to suit fluctuations in their customers’ businesses.

In response to customer consultation, which revealed that pressure on logistics costs and a lack of available warehouse space – especially in or near urban areas – AirRob PRO has been developed to meet the increased demands of customers operating in high-throughput eCommerce businesses such as grocery, fashion & apparel, health & beauty, pharma and FMCG retailers where even greater flexibility, accuracy, storage density and rapid fulfilment are necessary.

As it operates on standard racking, installation of AirRob PRO requires minimal adjustments to a warehouse’s infrastructure, thus increasing the speed and reducing the cost of deployment. Its design means the system can be quickly and easily expanded or shrunk according to market demands, for example to satisfy an increased throughput around seasonal peaks.

AirRob PRO is introduced to sit alongside the original AirRob in Libiao’s range of automated warehouse storage systems, not to replace it.

Customer benefits

A significance customer benefit derived from AirRob PRO is whereas previously a climbing bot picking from the left would have to drop to the left, and one picking from the right would drop right, AirRob PRO can pick and drop on both sides. This offers significant operational benefits, including an increase in throughput speed and greater flexibility to reconfigure stored goods. In certain cases AirRob PRO can be installed without floorbots. This opens up the potential in limited-space warehouses for picking to take place directly from the racking, thus eliminating the need for a workstation altogether and allowing the under-rack gap previously allocated to floorbots to be used for additional storage. Another benefit is that a customer can now use a single system, whether they are processing goods in cartons or totes. AirRob PRO has been designed to work with cartons and totes of virtually every dimension considered standard in the applications to which it is being marketed.

With a pedigree in the post & parcel sector, where its bots are specified by household-name couriers such as DPD and DHL Express, as well as numerous national postal companies in Europe and beyond, Libiao uses tried-and-tested technology in its warehouse systems, ensuring maximum levels of uptime for its customers. Plus, in response to a global customer trend to drive carbon out of logistics operations, AirRob PRO operates using just 1.5kW of energy – equivalent to that used by a household microwave oven.