500% pick rate rise – LIDAR explained

You might think that Wise Robotics is talking a bigger game than we can play, when we claim that we can increase your pick rates by up to 500%. But it all starts to make much more sense when you get a proper understanding of the technology involved, the systems we’ve selected, and how it all works together to build a modern automated warehouse. A key component of such a thing is LIDAR.

What is LIDAR?

LIDAR is in fact a key cornerstone of industry 4.0. By understanding what it can offer, you can discover just how different your warehouse might look in the near future.

What does LIDAR stand for?

LIDAR is an acronym that stands for

Laser

Imaging

Detection

And

Ranging

It is a crucial piece of technology essential for both the safety of manual workers that flexible automation systems run in parallel to, as well as advancing your robots to the next level of efficiency.

How does LIDAR work?

LIDAR systems involve shining laser beams of ultraviolet or infrared light out from various points on the body of the robot. By sweeping these beams at a wide range of angles around their environs, and using sensors to detect reflections and refractions, your robots can determine the shape and size of the space they are operating in.

More importantly, they will also be able to determine their own relative distance from obstacles, obstructions, and most crucially of all – their destination. As the lasers bounce off certain items, the robots will be able to detect walls, racks, warehouse equipment, and of course workers. The information about where these things are, relative both to the robot that’s doing the scanning as well as all the other robots, is then processed by the RCS and fed into an additive map of the current state of the warehouse.

The RCS will then instruct the robot on the apt course of action. Maybe it will need to stop dead. Maybe it will need to circumvent the obstacle. Maybe it will need to reorient and recalibrate its entire route. Whatever the action taken, it will be fully and accurately informed by what is detected via the LIDAR.

Why does LIDAR matter?

Acronyms abound when discussing any new technology. While it may seem that only engineering experts need to be fully aware of all the details, it is important to understand a given technology’s possible impact. By understanding what new equipment is, and what it can do today, you gain insight into the landscape of your business world in the near future.

LIDAR is important because of the extreme levels of precision and accuracy it can offer about the state and shape of the warehouse. The more accurate a picture the robots have of their surroundings, the more efficient and optimised their work can become.

LIDAR also makes your warehouses much safer. By being able to very accurately detect shapes and movement patterns of the warehouse around them, LIDAR-equipped robots can easily differentiate robust walls from stocked shelves, and less-robust workers. Being able to separate these obstacles out by type enables the RCS to direct the robots to take different courses of action. This makes your workers safer, and your workplace more efficient.

With LIDAR informing either an AGV or an AMR model of flexible automation, your warehouse can be understood at a highly detailed level by our robots. This in turn allows for a much more flexible and intricate warehouse operation. While you might think your storage grid has to be in clearly defined rank-and-file to make sense to robots, with a LIDAR-enhanced understanding of their surroundings, our robots can be much more adaptable to a far wider range of circumstances.

Discover what Wise Robotics can offer

LIDAR is just the tip of the technological iceberg. From advanced RCS, to SLAM navigation and much more besides, the world of industry 4.0 is changing everything. There is a good reason the current period of warehouse technology is called ‘the robotic revolution’.

Discover all this and more for yourself by booking a demonstration at the Wise Robotics demonstration centre. See what it looks like when a warehouse is modelled at peak efficiency. Our teams of experts and representatives will be more than happy to take you on a tour to demonstrate and explain exactly how your business could benefit from the next generation of warehouse automation.

The robotic revolution isn’t coming. It’s already here. Come and see it for yourself.