Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
Kiva Robot Shelves Come To You In This Warehouse
Kiva Systems has robotic warehouse shelves that come to the workers, not the other way around. This "out of the box" thinking lets packers put orders in the box twice as fast.
Kiva has already installed their OrderFetch software and robotic shelves in two Staples warehouses; the company has announced that a third warehouse will be installed for retail giant WalMart.
(Kiva Robot Shelves on the move)
The basis of the Kiva Systems robotic warehouse is a short, hardworking orange robot; above it, a set of shelves contain items for shipping.
The Kiva OrderFetch system is aware of which packaging station requires which products. The shelves move themselves around from all over the warehouse, lining up for the packer to pick the necessary items. When the shelves are empty, they shuttle off to a station where human workers can fill them efficiently.
The system is also adaptable; when a particular product becomes popular, it is placed on more shelves and the shelves are kept closer to the packing stations. Also, workers who fill the shelves are instructed to put hot sellers in the middle shelves, where they are easiest to reach.
This system of letting the shelves move, leaving the packers in one place, reminds me of the CirculaFloor smart tile computer interface for gaming. With CirculaFloor, it is the floor tiles that move, letting the gamer stay in one place.
(From CirculaFloor from VRLab University of Tsukuba)
As the gamer walks forward in the game (seen in the 3D goggles), the floor tile that he has just stepped off from zooms around and then positions itself where he will step next. See CirculaFloor - Smart Tile Holodeck? for more information.
Take a look at a cool video of Kiva Systems OrderFetch robot shelves; via MIT Technology Review. See a CirculaFloor video.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 11/12/2007)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 2 )
Related News Stories - (" Robotics ")
Pole-Dancing Stripperbot Robot
'Why, a clockwork dancer, or, better still, one that would go by electricity and never run down...' - Jerome K. Jerome, 1893.
VaMEx Biomimetic Mars Robot Inspired By Skink
'Across the ground something small and metallic came, flashing in the dull sunlight of midday.' - Philip K. Dick, 1953.
DIY Robotic Content Farming
'The chief wheeled to the master machine and pressed a button.' - Schachner and Zagat, 1931.
Vero Robotic Dog With Vacuum Cleaner Feet
'Out of warrens in the wall, tiny robot mice darted.'
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
Pole-Dancing Stripperbot Robot
'Why, a clockwork dancer, or, better still, one that would go by electricity and never run down...'
Collective Superintelligence Is At Hand!
'Maybe the individual intelligence of each Cubic pools into a group intelligence...'
Instant Journalists: Ordinary People With Cell Phones
'We'll show them whose planet this is!'
Health Kiosk Has No Human Doctor
'The electronic body analyzer had been developed...'
Meta's Horizon Studio's Unique Avatars From Text Prompts
'Looks like she has bought the Avatar Construction Set and put together her own...'
VaMEx Biomimetic Mars Robot Inspired By Skink
'Across the ground something small and metallic came, flashing in the dull sunlight of midday.'
NEO Brain Computer Interface (BCI)
'The remains of the lace took on the rough shape of a brain...'
Did Frank Herbert Predict Bistable Displays Like E-Ink?
'A broken circle with arrows pointing to a right-hand flow appeared in the chalf.'
Monolith One Giant Industrial Metal 3D-printer
'The object seemed melted together like wax — nothing was distinguishable.'
'Mooncrete' Lunar Regolith Concrete (LRC)
'And here they began to build...'
China's 'Magpie Drone' Ornithopter
'Midges have many capabilities. To the untrained eye, they look like sparrows.'
MAI-Voice-2 Microsoft Text-To-Speech
'I made disks of my own voice to the number of five hundred very carefully chosen words.'
Tumblin' Tumbleweed Rovers To Eplore Mars
'His sensors out and working, and the whirring of the tape that sucked up sight and sound and shape and smell and form...'
Tentacled Robot Captures Space Debris
Preventing annoying space debris build-up.
Prufrock-MB2 Ready In Nashville
'It sounds to me as though you had invented a kind of metal earthworm.'
DIY Robotic Content Farming
'The chief wheeled to the master machine and pressed a button.'
