Swisslog and KUKA combine on innovative logistics robots

The workstation is designed for order fulfillment picking or for the automated supply of industrial assembly line components. This is the first result of their recent collaboration.

The Industry 4.0 technology concept is based on the emerging need for humans and robots to interact and collaborate in intralogistics applications.

Automated Item Pick is based on KUKA’s LBR iiwa, the world’s first production-ready collaborative lightweight robot, which turns Swisslog’s fully automated CarryPick and AutoStore goods-to-person picking solutions into interactive human-robot workstations.

One distinctive feature is that the order bins at the pick station are serviced by a human and the robot’s grippers at the same time, without the need for a barrier or fence between man and machine. Using imaging technologies and LBR iiwa’s advanced joint torque sensors, Swisslog and KUKA have created a forward-thinking concept that is perfectly suited for industrial applications.

Swisslog’s Automated Item Pick workstation is an intelligent enhancement of the Click&Pick solution portfolio; a modular warehouse logistics concept that offers flexible scalability as well as high throughput, for storing and picking light goods.

"For Swisslog, Automated Item Pick is an important milestone on our journey into a cyber-physical future – one that combines traditional automation technologies with the technical achievements of the IT world,” says Peter Hettich, CEO at Swisslog. "As part of our Industry 4.0 concept, we aim to increase the availability of our systems and eliminate potential error sources from intralogistics processes early on.”

KUKA bought Swisslog last year for $357 million.

Swisslog at Hannover Messe 2015: Hall 17, Booth G04