Kiva Systems - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Kiva Systems is a company that makes order fulfillment systems that use mobile robot

Robot

A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...

s for warehouse

Warehouse

A warehouse is a commercial building for storage of goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial areas of cities and towns. They usually have loading docks to load and unload...

automation

Automation

Automation is the use of control systems and information technologies to reduce the need for human work in the production of goods and services. In the scope of industrialization, automation is a step beyond mechanization...

. Its material handling systems are used by Staples, Walgreens

Walgreens

Walgreen Co. , doing business as Walgreens , is the largest drugstore chain in the United States of America. As of August 31st, the company operates 8,210 locations across all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Founded in Chicago, Illinois in 1901, and has since expanded...

, GAP

Gap (clothing retailer)

The Gap, Inc. is an American clothing and accessories retailer based in San Francisco, California, and founded in 1969 by Donald G. Fisher and Doris F. Fisher. The company has five primary brands: the namesake Gap banner, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime and Athleta. As of September 2008,...

, Crate and Barrel

Crate and Barrel

Crate & Barrel is a 170+ store chain of American retail stores, based in Northbrook, Illinois, specializing in housewares, furniture , and home accessories. Its corporate name is Euromarket Designs, Inc. The company is wholly owned by Otto GmbH.-Founding:Gordon and Carole Segal opened the first...

, Toys "R" Us and Gilt Groupe

Gilt Groupe

Gilt Groupe is a shopping website based in the United states, offering its members merchandise, clothing, home decor, delicatessen food, travel and activities. Gilt Groupe was founded in 2007 and has 3.5 million members...

, among others.

Overview

Traditionally, goods are moved around a distribution center

Distribution center

A distribution center for a set of products is a warehouse or other specialized building, often with refrigeration or air conditioning, which is stocked with products to be redistributed to retailers, to wholesalers, or directly to consumers. A distribution center is a principal part, the order...

using conveyors

Conveyor system

A conveyor system is a common piece of mechanical handling equipment that moves materials from one location to another. Conveyors are especially useful in applications involving the transportation of heavy or bulky materials...

, or by human operators with tow racks or forklifts. In Kiva's approach, goods are kept on portable storage units. When an order for an item arrives, battery-powered robots (called drive units) are guided by a computerized control system to fetch the order. They follow a grid system of 2D bar codes on the floor to navigate their way to mobile shelves containing the desired inventory. When the drive unit reaches the correct location on the warehouse floor, it positions itself beneath a pod and lifts it from the ground in a corkscrew action. The unit is then guided to a human packer on the periphery of the floor who takes the process over from there. The pod then picks up a pod from a previous delivery, replaces it on the floor by reversing the corkscrew action and is then free to work on another mission.

Kiva has two models of robots. The smaller model is approximately 2 feet by 2.5 feet, and one foot high and capable of lifting 1000 pounds. The larger model can carry pallets and loads as heavy as 3,000 pounds. Both are a distinctive orange color. The maximum velocity of a robot is 1.3 meters per second. The robots navigate around the warehouse using an onboard camera to read barcode

Barcode

A barcode is an optical machine-readable representation of data, which shows data about the object to which it attaches. Originally barcodes represented data by varying the widths and spacings of parallel lines, and may be referred to as linear or 1 dimensional . Later they evolved into rectangles,...

stickers on the warehouse floor. They communicate wirelessly to computer servers that run order-processing software and deliver directions.

Kiva's relatively new approach to automated material handling systems for order fulfillment is gaining traction in eCommerce fulfillment, retail restocking, parts distribution and medical device distribution operations. The system is much more efficient and accurate than the traditional method of having human workers traveling around the warehouse locating and picking items.

External links

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