Major e-commerce companies are targeting the robotics field and preparing for Double eleven

With the arrival of Tmall Double 11 singles day in 2017, on September 20th, with the support of the State Post Bureau, China Express Association, the Cainiao network and major express delivery companies held a double 11 singles day event in Shanghai, the whole industry jointly planned Tmall double 11 singles day. Prepare for logistics and meet a new world record.

According to relevant figures from the State Post Bureau, according to the forecast, the total volume of express delivery in the whole industry during the double 11 singles day period (11.11-11.16) will reach a new level, which is expected to exceed 1 billion. To this end, major e-commerce companies have turned their attention to the large-scale application of smart logistics, and in the field of robots.

Cobos robots will enter the major stores in Suning

At the Suning Tesco O2O Shopping Festival conference held on the 16th of this month, Suning Tesco announced the news that Cobos Robots will enter the major stores in Suning. Starting in November, Cobos' first intelligent retail robots will officially “join” Suning unmanned stores and other physical stores.

In the Suning Line store, Cobos Smart Retail Robot not only provides consumers with navigation services in category areas or counter locations, automatically introduces product expertise, but also identifies customers and actively asks customers for their needs.

In addition to the above functions, Cobos Robot is also deeply involved in Suning's “V-purchase” system, and provides remote shopping services for VIPs, assisting VIPs to accompany children, and making parents more comfortable in selecting products. At the same time, through the offline real-time data accurate collection, online analysis and management, to achieve integrated retail marketing management. Bringing consumers a sense of technology and a convenient and intimate shopping experience.

As early as this year's 818 fever shopping festival, Suning will introduce Cobos robot "Wangbao" into the store to do high-level V purchase, to create "offline store through train", to bring consumers specialized shopping guide services, and combined with VR Shopping, live broadcast and other technical means of technology empowerment, providing users with an omni-channel, diversified shopping experience.

Hou Enlong, president of Suning Tesco, said that in addition to providing a full range of services, robots are also an important part of Suning's big data. The intelligent robot will accurately record each piece of interactive information and consumption data in real time. After the integration analysis of the data, the consumer is provided with a shopping service that meets the individual needs, and on the other hand, it provides data support for the brand to carry out more accurate and efficient marketing activities.

Jingdong show the first full-process intelligent unmanned warehouse

Some time ago, about mid-October, Jingdong's first full-process intelligent unmanned warehouse was unveiled in Shanghai. It covers an area of 40,000 square meters. The main body of the logistics center consists of four operating systems: receiving, storage, order picking and packaging. The system consists of 8 sets of shuttle car storage systems, which can store 60,000 boxes of goods at the same time. In the goods storage, packaging and other links, Jingdong unmanned warehouse is equipped with three different types of six-axis robotic arm, which is used in four scenarios of storage and packing, picking, mixing palletizing and sorting robot.

In the sorting field, JD.com introduced three different types of intelligent handling robots to perform tasks. In five scenes, Jingdong used 2D visual recognition, 3D visual recognition, and 2.5D visual technology consisting of visual technology and infrared ranging to install "eyes" for these intelligent robots to realize active interaction between the machine and the environment. . It is expected that after the official operation of Jingdong Unmanned Warehouse, it will be able to handle more than 200,000 orders per day.

The biggest feature of Jingdong unmanned warehouse is the large-scale, multi-scene application of robots. In the entire process of the unmanned warehouse in Jingdong, from the goods to the people to palletizing, packaging, sorting, and then to the package transfer, a variety of robots with different functions and characteristics are applied, and these robots can not only process according to system instructions. Orders can also complete automatic avoidance, path optimization and other work.

The whole process intelligent unmanned warehouse can be regarded as a bold innovation of Jingdong in intelligent warehousing. Its automation and intelligent equipment coverage rate reaches 100%, which can cope with the business form of e-commerce flexible and changeable orders.

The development of the intelligent warehouse in the Cainiao network in the past two years

Last year's double eleven singles day, Alibaba's Cainiao network officially put into use in the "smart warehouse" built in Haining, this is the first smart warehouse in China to replace the manual sorting and packing of the whole machine by machine, including the previously exposed Intelligent AGV robot developed by Cainiao. When the consumer's order is released, the AGV sorting robot selects the optimal route and automatically avoids the obstacle to go to the warehouse to pick up the goods. The AGV robot developed by Cainiao has technologies such as visual recognition, laser navigation, and obstacle avoidance, which have greater application flexibility and adaptability to business scenarios.

According to Hu Haoyuan, a senior algorithm expert at the Cainiao network, unlike the other intelligent warehouses in China, Cainiao's intelligent warehouse needs to dispatch hundreds of handling robots at the same time, which means that each task needs to be assigned to the corresponding robot reasonably. To optimize the overall task completion efficiency, and to prevent possible collisions between robots and prevent robot congestion in some areas.

On September 20th, the Cainiao network announced that it will launch a super robot warehouse group nationwide, so that the double 11 singles day logistics can still achieve a significant increase in efficiency in the case of a single high-speed growth. According to the Cainiao network, these warehouses will be distributed in key cities such as Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Hubei and logistics hubs. The intelligent warehouse not only has a fully automated assembly line, but also a variety of cache robots, seeding robots, picking robots, AGV matrices and robotic arms.

According to Lei Feng.com (Public No.: Lei Feng), in August this year, the Cainiao network announced that it has established a fully automated robotic flagship warehouse in Huiyang, Guangdong. According to the official test of the Cainiao network, the results show that the picker in a traditional warehouse walked 27,924 steps in 7 and a half hours, picking 1,500 pieces, which is close to the manual picking limit. The number of pickers in a smart warehouse is only 2,563 steps, and the number of pickers has reached 3,000. But at that time, the use of Huiyang robot warehouse could only cope with the usual order peak. However, according to the predictions of relevant persons of the State Post Bureau, in order to cope with the new order of logistics orders during the double eleven period this year, large-scale application of smart logistics is needed.

150 AGV robots build their own warehouses

Based on this background, the Cainiao Network teamed up with the warehouse operator Beiling Technology and the intelligent robot hardware manufacturer Kuocang Technology to upgrade the Huiyang robot warehouse.

The upgraded robot warehouse area is larger than the old warehouses announced in August, and the number of robots working is more. According to Lei Feng.com, the number of AGV robots put into use in the new smart warehouse is the largest in the country, with up to 150 units. In just one hour, all the goods in the warehouse can be completely emptied.

Another information point worthy of attention is: The Cainiao network technology expert said that the Huiyang super robot flagship warehouse was built by the robot. In a vacant warehouse, only basic electrical facilities need to be built. These deeply-learned robots can realize the task of building a smart warehouse independently.

Lei Feng.com was informed that according to the Cainiao network, 2017 double eleven logistics will present a number of new features, the most important change is that the robot warehouse from the past single-point flowering to large-scale application. The Cainiao network related technical experts have said that in fact many companies are currently exploring smart warehouses and unmanned warehouses, but most of them are stuck in the small-scale test and demonstration stage. ”

Every year, the double eleven will start an e-commerce transaction between major e-commerce companies. Therefore, e-commerce companies are using increasingly mature warehousing robot technology to make logistics more efficient and accurate, and will push the logistics industry into a new stage of intelligence.