TECH & AI
W arehouse automation is nothing new ; it goes back as far as 120 years , to the first conveyors , while automated storage and retrieval systems were first deployed in the 1950s .
But with robotics beginning to feature more heavily than ever , many of today ’ s warehouses can have a sci-fi vibe .
A recent Gartner supply chain study found that deployment of mobile robots is expected to move faster than that of drones , because the technology is more established – and it is warehouses that are the main area of deployment for such robots . The report , Hype Cycle for Mobile Robots and Drones , shows that around three-quarters of companies plan on using some type of robotic warehouse automation . Gartner also says machine learning will become mainstream over the next five years , creating greater demand both for mobile robots and drones .
Standardised automation software is also a factor driving robotics , says the report , with so-called multi-agent orchestration platforms increasing in 2023 .
122 December 2023