{"id":578161,"date":"2024-03-26T12:30:47","date_gmt":"2024-03-26T16:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.therobotreport.com\/?p=578161"},"modified":"2024-03-28T10:07:58","modified_gmt":"2024-03-28T14:07:58","slug":"righthand-robotics-and-vanderlande-discuss-industry-trends-rightpick-4-at-modex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.therobotreport.com\/righthand-robotics-and-vanderlande-discuss-industry-trends-rightpick-4-at-modex\/","title":{"rendered":"RightHand Robotics and Vanderlande discuss industry trends, RightPick 4 at MODEX"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"RightHand<\/a><\/p>\n

RightHand Robotics Inc. has hit the ground running in 2024. Earlier this year, it released RightPick 4, an upgraded version of its piece-picking system that can handle items up to 25% larger and 50% heavier than RightPick 3.<\/p>\n

The Charlestown, Mass.-based company<\/a> worked closely with integration partner<\/a> Vanderlande on many of the new features in RightPick 4<\/a>. The companies’ close partnership is key to both successful deployments and future technology development, according to David Schwebel, head of sales and strategic business development at RightHand, and Jake Heldenberg, North American head of solution design for warehousing at Vanderlande<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Robot Report<\/em><\/a> caught up with Schwebel, Heldenberg, and Paul Eyre, RightHand’s director of channel sales, at MODEX<\/a> last week. They shared insights on industry trends, RightPick’s latest capabilities, and more.<\/p>\n

End users approach robotics differently this year<\/h2>\n

So, how has the show been for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Schwebel: <\/strong>This is probably the best-attended MODEX ever, and it’s actually even better than ProMAT last year. <\/span><\/p>\n

What we\u2019re hearing is that we\u2019ve gone past moments of inspiration and education. We\u2019re in the engagement phase. Quite often, the people that are coming by are saying, “I already trust what I see. I\u2019ve seen the Vanderlande SIR system. I wanted to see the new features and things that you\u2019re doing at RightHand. Now how can I engage further?”<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019re seeing great experiences and great collaborations. So, now it\u2019s all about taking their information, understanding their workflows, and finding the right individuals to bring it across to you. <\/span><\/p>\n

They sold more than 44,000 rooms in Atlanta this year, which was about 25% larger than it was at MODEX two years ago. And with all that, they\u2019re expecting more than 50,000 to 56,000 people to walk through the halls. <\/span><\/p>\n

Eyre: <\/strong>I\u2019m just coming up for air to be honest, which is great. What I\u2019m seeing in my conversations is that customers are now expressing a level of trust in the technology. They\u2019re moving from exploration into engagement with the technology, and they really want to start adopting the technology.<\/span><\/p>\n

I think they\u2019re also starting to get into the technology, so they can maybe instruct their integrators that “These are the types of technologies we\u2019d like to use and we\u2019d like you to adopt.” So, now they\u2019re becoming far more educated and involved in the decision-making process rather than leaving that to integration partners.<\/span><\/p>\n

And that\u2019s great for us because they come to us, and we\u2019re able to generate leads and give them to our integrators first. I\u2019ve had conversation after conversation with end users saying, “OK, it\u2019s time to do this. Now show me where this has been installed previously. Show me how I can employ these technologies effectively in my solution.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Schwebel: <\/strong>We\u2019re often hearing that customers held back on investments over the past three years, and they\u2019re finally at a place where they have to refresh their existing environments.<\/p>\n

So, between the availability of the capital, the interest, and the engagement, we\u2019re experiencing trust with the product. They see it\u2019s de-risked. They see going through the integrator environment is absolutely the right thing to do. And they\u2019re replicating what they did about seven to 10 years ago. So, we\u2019re in that great crux of “It\u2019s time to engage and engage fast.”<\/p>\n

While Vanderlande doesn\u2019t have a booth, how has it been being all over the show?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Heldenberg: <\/strong>The funny thing is, I\u2019ve actually had more engagement this year without a booth. A lot of times, you bring in your current customers or customers you\u2019re already working with.<\/span><\/p>\n

Walking the show has been really interesting. The questions I\u2019m getting are more specific, and people are saying, “Hey, I\u2019m ready to invest.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Last year, it was very exploratory. People came here trying to figure out all these new technologies, what\u2019s going to benefit them. And now, each time I run into a customer it\u2019s like, “<\/span>Hey, we\u2019re ready. We need to move.”<\/span><\/p>\n

So it has been a very interesting change and shift for me also, just being able to walk and see all the new technologies. If we had a booth, I wouldn’t have a lot of time to walk around. I\u2019ve been able to go take a look at all the different new technologies — some more exciting than others, to be pretty blunt about it. <\/span><\/p>\n

What has been some of the more exciting stuff?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Heldenberg: <\/strong>We\u2019ve seen autonomous crane robots, or ACRs, come along, and the AMR [autonomous mobile robot<\/a>] technology has come up. I see that when it comes to flexibility.<\/p>\n

ACR isn\u2019t going to wow you [throughput-wise] yet against a shuttle system. But on a low-capacity system, [it offers] flexibility and the lack of a single point of failure. I see that is really the next technology that\u2019s going to take off as far as ASRS [automated storage and retrieval systems<\/a>] goes. That\u2019s what I\u2019ve been most impressed by. In years past, you\u2019d see it, and it\u2019d still look a little clunky, there were still stability issues. All of that is getting resolved.<\/p>\n

Item-picking issues we saw last year are already getting resolved. So this year, even with RightHand, the new gripper is a lot better and a lot more advanced. All these new technologies that have sprung up over the past five years are becoming more stable and more robust. And for me, I see nothing but opportunity, especially for the customers.<\/p>\n

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\"SITELearn from Agility Robotics, Amazon, Disney, Teradyne and many more.<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n

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What potential customers are looking for<\/h2>\n

When these customers approach you, what kinds of metrics are they really interested in hitting?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Eyre: <\/strong>For me, it\u2019s throughput, throughput, throughput when it comes to robotics. They\u2019re interested in whether the technology available today can match or exceed the performance of a human. I\u2019m not saying that\u2019s always the case, but the technology is improving to a level where it\u2019s coming up to those levels of matching human performance. <\/p>\n

This makes things very, very interesting for them, because it addresses the issues of labor availability and retention, which are causing a lot of heartburn. It\u2019s becoming acute in a lot of geographies.<\/p>\n

Heldenberg: <\/strong>Five years ago, the technology and vision systems were not quite where they needed to be. Like 50% of SKUs were inaccessible. But now, that we\u2019ve seen more things, especially when it comes to small boxes or odd-shaped items, can be picked successfully.<\/p>\n

The system can prove it can be consistent over a 16-hour shift. So, the business case is clearly there. A robot doesn\u2019t take a break. It doesn\u2019t need to go to the bathroom.<\/p>\n

So what we\u2019re seeing as a level of investment now is people saying, “I want to buy one or two or three of these bots. Let\u2019s put them in and have stations that are prepped and ready because once we prove it on those first few booths, I want them into half of the stations.” So performance is important, but it\u2019s also performance that\u2019s sustained through an entire shift.<\/p>\n

Eyre: <\/strong>The range has increased substantially. Picking a large range reliably really lends itself to an increase in autonomy. That means a lack of intervention or reduction of human intervention to resolve exceptions within the robot station is increasing and improving substantially year over year.<\/p>\n

You need very, very few humans to support a fleet of robots. So autonomy is something that you have to have KPIs [key performance indicators] for earlier on, and something they\u2019re measuring is the level of human intervention or autonomy.<\/p>\n