This paper will explain the patents applied by different enterprises in detail, and further discuss the impact on application scenarios after adopting these technologies.
Wal-Mart: Infrastructure and distribution center automation focuses on self-delivery.
According to CB Insights, by 2027, the e-commerce market in the United States alone is expected to reach 1 trillion dollars, and the current valuation is 66 1 billion dollars. In response to this market, Wal-Mart is speeding up distribution and process automation.
It is reported that since 20 16, Wal-Mart has applied for more than 65 patents related to drones and ground robots, 53 of which involve drone systems, aiming at improving the reliability of drones and ensuring their safety.
Independent "delivery chain"
For example, from 2065438 to February 2008, Wal-Mart applied for a patent to develop a "delivery chain" for drones. In the delivery chain, each UAV can communicate with a centralized node to receive delivery information and identify which UAV the goods should be delivered to.
Air-ground transmission system
Also on 20 18, the company applied for the patent of the handover system between UAV and AGV. The patent can transfer the goods transported by drones to automatic guided vehicles and increase the way of parcel delivery.
Crash landing system
The biggest challenge facing UAV system in use is security. In this regard, from June 2065438 to October 2009 10, Wal-Mart applied for a patent for the crash landing system, in which the drone will be equipped with sensors to determine the potential location of the crash landing during the flight. More importantly, in the process of forced landing, the system can also send out alarm signals and their positions.
Autonomous robot system, timely replenishment of inventory
In addition to paying attention to the distribution of the last mile, it is also a big goal of Wal-Mart to realize the automation of the distribution center by using robot technology. 2065438+September 2008, the company obtained a patent of autonomous robot system, which can detect a small number of specific products in one infrastructure, and if there is a shortage, it can obtain the product from another facility to replenish its inventory.
Amazon: Robots that focus on moving objects and a number of patents related to drones.
As a strong competitor of Wal-Mart in the field of e-commerce, Amazon acquired Kiva Systems, a robot startup, in 20 12. Since then, it has also taken measures to automate the supply chain by deploying robot technologies such as computer vision, depth sensing, object recognition and other artificial intelligence software.
According to data from CB Insights, since 20 14 years, Amazon has applied for more than 180 patents related to robots and drones, mainly focusing on autonomous mobile robots and drones.
Robots can operate on objects.
This patent provides a technology that allows robots to operate objects. Target recognition is accomplished by analyzing one or more projects using the rules of machine vision. In addition, if it is determined that the robot cannot complete the current operation, it can send a signal to request human assistance.
Mobile robot group for moving articles
Another patent on robots applied by Amazon is the mobile robot group, which is a technology that can improve the efficiency and flexibility of the warehouse system and is specially used to move "oversized, overweight or uniquely shaped items". Specifically, multiple robots cooperate to complete a job. For example, the instruction of the first task can be sent to the first robot, and then the instruction of the second task can be sent to the second robot according to the working progress of the robot and the dependency relationship with the first task. When the corresponding robots perform tasks, the first task and the second task can make the mobile robot group move articles incrementally.
Patent of UAV transportation system
In May of 20 19, Amazon obtained a patent of unmanned aerial vehicle transportation system, which can help deliver the goods ordered by customers to the designated destination, in other words, it can be used to solve the distribution problem of the last mile. It should be noted that the UAV does not return to the cargo handling place by its own strength, and its trip setting is a one-way route. After delivery, it will stay at the destination, and then it will be retrieved by a retrieval unit (such as a truck).
In addition to the above patents, Amazon also applied for many other patents on drones, including drone position filter, aerial drone charging, delivery drone descent, designated delivery location as needed, positioning aircraft sensors, automatic loading system, etc. Generally speaking, Amazon's huge investment in its supply chain may pose a competitive threat to players in other e-commerce markets.
JD。 COM: There are not many patents, all of which are related to robots.
Compared with Wal-Mart and Amazon, JD.COM, the leader of e-commerce market in China, lags far behind them in patent. From 20 14 to 20 19, there are four patents on drones and robots, and we will explain two of them in detail below.
Classification robot
The first one is a sorting robot, which was submitted by JD.COM in March 20 18 and approved in February 20 19. Classification robot, as its name implies, is a kind of robot technology used to classify articles, which mainly involves the application in logistics, especially warehousing. For this kind of robot, it has at least one layer of tray and a shaft located at the axis of the tray; Meanwhile, the tray is provided with a first slot with an openable first door; One end of the tray extends upward to form a tray wall; A space partition plate for separating the storage bin is arranged along the disk shaft to the disk wall; The space separator is rotatably connected with the axis of the tray and can rotate around the axis of the tray. It is worth mentioning that the size of the storage box and the number of items placed in the storage box can be adjusted, and the items can be output through the openable first door, which can improve the output efficiency of the items in the storage box.
Method and device for controlling mobile robot
This technology is mainly aimed at mobile robots. It can generate evaluation information for pedestrians through the perception information of mobile robots, such as the intention information of nearby pedestrians and the types of pedestrian events, and then generate pedestrian behavior information according to the perception information and evaluation information, in which the pedestrian behavior information includes the predicted position information sequence and the predicted behavior type sequence of nearby pedestrians in a preset future time period. Then, according to the perceived information, information for control is generated to control the mobile robot. This patent will improve the social acceptance of mobile robots to a certain extent.
As we mentioned above, the patented technologies of Wal-Mart, Amazon and JD.COM are not only used to solve the last mile distribution problem, but also some patents, especially robot-related technologies, can improve efficiency to a certain extent. Efficiency has always been one of the driving forces for retailers to realize warehouse automation. Therefore, from JD.COM to Wal-Mart to Amazon, many retailers have turned their attention to warehouse automation.
Wal-Mart launched the Alphabot system, which selects more than 800 kinds of goods every hour.
On June 5438+ 10, 2020, Wal-Mart launched a robot system called Alphabot to improve distribution efficiency and solve one of the biggest problems faced by its online business. This system was developed by Wal-Mart in cooperation with Massachusetts startup Alert Innovation.
The Alphabot robot system is currently running in a warehouse covering an area of 20,000 square feet. After the refrigerated and frozen goods are retrieved and collected from the high-density goods storage system by automatically moving trolleys, the goods are transported to the workstation of the store, and the staff check, package and send orders.
It is reported that through the cooperation of manpower and system, more than 800 kinds of goods can be selected every hour. In contrast, the data of alert innovation shows that the number of products that can be selected from the store shelves by manpower per hour is 80, that is, the selection efficiency of machines is 10 times that of manpower.
Although Alphabot is a mixed system to some extent, that is, a system that requires both human and machine to complete the work, its future development direction is that the operation is completely completed by machines. Brian rozelle, senior manager of Wal-Mart's automation and digital operation, said, "This will have a revolutionary impact on Wal-Mart's supply chain. Alphabot simplifies the order process and enables faster and more efficient order selection. "
Amazon uses robots to package orders, and each robot may eliminate 24 employees.
20 19 in may, some media reported that Amazon was studying using robots to scan the goods on the conveyor belt and then put them into customized boxes. In fact, Amazon has been trying to apply more new technologies to freight warehouses, but the difference between these two new robot technologies is that each machine can eliminate at least 24 employees. On average, Amazon's 55 logistics centers will lose more than 65,438+0,300 jobs.
In the past, the work including scanning, sorting and packaging has always been an automatic link. This is the first exposure of Amazon's plan. It is worth noting that these plans have not been put into action because they need to be continuously verified before large-scale deployment.
It is understood that this new machine comes from Italy CMC Srl company and is called CartonWrap. It is reported that the packaging speed of robots is much faster than that of human beings, and it can complete 600-700 boxes of orders per hour, which is 4-5 times the labor efficiency. However, like Wal-Mart's robots, these robots also need manual help, such as checking orders, storing cardboard and glue, and repairing possible paper jams.
In addition, Amazon also announced the use of another robot, SmartPac, to mail items. With this robot, Amazon will be able to make most artificial packing automation.
Although it has taken a step towards automation in order packaging, Amazon still believes that this technology is not ready because it still needs to manually put the goods on the conveyor belt. In addition, the robot needs technicians to be present when working, so as to deal with faults in time. These are all problems that need to be solved urgently.
JD.COM has launched the world's first unmanned warehouse, or it will become a model for the future.
Compared with the time when Amazon was exposed to using robots to pick up goods, JD.COM came earlier, and even the automation process was more comprehensive. 20 17, 10 this month, China e-commerce companies are preparing for the biggest shopping festival of the year-"Double 1 1" shopping festival. At this time, JD.COM showed people his secret weapon in advance: the world's first unmanned warehouse in Jiading District, Shanghai, from warehousing to packaging and sorting.
The unmanned warehouse unveiled this time is the third phase project in the overall planning of JD.COM Asia No.1, with a construction area of 40,000 square meters. The main body of the logistics center consists of four operating systems: receiving goods, warehousing, order picking and packaging. The storage system consists of eight shuttle car warehouse systems, which can store 60,000 boxes of goods at the same time. More importantly, after the unmanned warehouse in JD.COM is officially put into operation, its daily order processing capacity will exceed 200,000 orders.
In this regard, JD.COM said that unmanned warehouse is a bold innovation in intelligent warehousing in JD.COM, with the coverage rate of automation and intelligent equipment reaching 100%, which can cope with the flexible business form of e-commerce. This is an efficient and orderly supplement to the original style that Asia No.1 can digest huge orders for a long time.
In 20 19, in order to prepare for the shopping festival in 6 18, JD.COM put into operation 23 Asia's first intelligent logistics parks in China. In the next five years, JD.com Logistics will become the first in Asia in more than 30 other core cities in China, radiating all major provinces, cities, districts and counties.
Judging from the patents applied by the three giants, we can see that they are betting more on drone delivery and distribution center automation. There are two reasons why they do this: on the one hand, robot technology can make customers enjoy more favorable prices, on the other hand, automation of distribution centers can help enterprises reduce the long-term costs in their supply chains. Therefore, for large retailers, embracing automation will be an inevitable choice to keep up with the market with technological changes, but there are still many challenges to be overcome in the process of pursuing automation, such as upfront costs and employee ownership arrangements.