What makes today's warehouse automation "intelligent"? And what are the key challenges around adopting it? Zaven Gabriel, product marketing manager with Locus Robotics, offers a perspective. 

“Intelligent” warehouse automation isn’t exactly new, “but it’s looming larger than ever in a lot of minds,” Gabriel says. Facilities are confronting labor shortages, rising demand and growing volatility in order volumes — not just during traditional peak seasons, but throughout the year.

The word “intelligent” in this context connotes the incorporation of artificial intelligence and machine learning into warehouse systems. That technology has “reached a real tipping point in the last couple of years,” Gabriel says. “The number of possible ways to solve challenges by automation is growing by leaps and bounds.”

AI-driven systems depend on data to be trained and anticipate changes. They can draw on their own “experience” of past events to adapt to future developments. Such capabilities “are enabled by generational leaps in computing that’s driving the market forward,” Gabriel says.

Flexibility is key. Traditional systems can’t rapidly adjust to shifts in demand. “Any system like that is going to be too big, too small or both all the time,” Gabriel says. “It’s not going to be able to adapt to changes.” At the same time, it’s not just about designing systems for the moment of greatest need — “building the church for Easter Sunday.” It’s about responding to whatever’s occurring in the market at any given time.

Gabriel adds that it’s crucial to define a problem before picking a system to address it. And it’s about “understanding how the problem is going to change over time — making sure that the investment you make is going to allow you to continue.”