As this industry is growing more complex, it is important for us to contribute to the conversations around the trends and technologies needed to solve issues around labor shortages and increased demand. Booth #9807

MODEX Q&A - Vecna Robotics

MODEX Q&A with | Vecna Robotics

Tell us about your company.

Vecna Robotics delivers autonomous material handling solutions via self-driving vehicles powered by our proprietary continuously improving software, Pivotal™ orchestration engine, and 24/7 customer service team. Our solutions deliver value for customers in the distribution, warehousing, and manufacturing sectors by automating cross-docking, line-side delivery, replenishment, case-picking, and oversized/non-standard SKUs delivery. Vecna Robotics’ technology goes beyond traditional automation and focuses on maximizing human and robot capability to create fulfilling jobs, increase productivity, and encourage innovation.

 

Your company will be exhibiting at MODEX, what is it that makes this an important event for your company?

As this industry is growing more complex, it is important for us to contribute to the conversations around the trends and technologies needed to solve issues around labor shortages and increased demand. We believe the advancement of the materials handling space relies heavily on the ability for robots, humans, and software to work together seamlessly. MODEX presents a great opportunity for us to connect with customers, partners, and industry thought leaders to work on finding a collaborative and interoperable way forward.  

 

What makes your booth a must visit for MODEX Attendees?

Last month, Vecna Robotics announced $50 million in Series B funding. Our Founder and CEO, Daniel Theobald, will be present at our booth along with other company executives to give visitors an early look into the company’s plans along with insights into the mobile robotics market in the coming years. 

Additionally, we will be showcasing our Autonomous Mobile Robots, including a new line of autonomous pallet jacks manufactured in partnership with UniCarriers Americas. Discussion at the booth will also focus heavily on Pivotal, our orchestration solution that coordinates and distributes tasks in real-time based on resource availability and capability, integrates seamlessly with legacy automation, WMS, and other ERP systems, and analyzes performance and trends over time. 

 

MODEX has many educational sessions, forums & Demo’s, is your company involved in any of them this year?

Daniel Theobald will be presenting “Future Proof Your Operation” in Theater 1 on Wednesday March 11 at noon. Attendees will learn that autonomous material solutions are a large investment, but they don't have to be a risky one. The logistics and manufacturing markets are increasing at an exponential rate due to massive eCommerce demand and technology is rapidly advancing. Customers need a provider and technology that keep up with these changes without breaking the bank. Educate yourself on the technology differentiators that separate the providers who deliver long term flexibility from those who only provide short term improvements.
 

When you get a chance to walk the exhibit hall floor yourself, what is it you will be most interested to see?  Any educational sessions, pavilions etc. you plan on attending? 

We are most interested in attending education seminars across the three tracks Automation & Robotics, Workforce & Labor, and Transportation, Distribution & Warehousing. The team is also looking forward to attending MHI Young Professionals Networking Night and Women in Supply Chain Industry Forum to grow our network across the industry.

 

The Supply Chain is undertaking rapid advancements, be it automation, mobile robotics, IIoT or Autonomous vehicles, give us an idea on how your company and product is being utilized now in the supply chain.

Vecna Robotics offers the most scalable AMR solutions in the industry for applications including line-side replenishment, finished goods transport, sortation, cross-docking, and picking and put-away. 

Our AMRs use Pivotal, the world’s first continuously-improving multi-agent orchestration engine to transform manual material handling operations into flexible, adaptive, autonomous systems by leveraging the best strengths of autonomous robots, intelligent AI systems, real-time data, human ingenuity, and continuous learning.

By implementing autonomous mobile robots alone, our customers have seen up to 60% efficiency gains for putaway applications, and over 35% for sortation. Our data shows that coordinating activities amongst AMRs using Pivotal fleet manager increases efficiencies by an additional 38%. By coordinating activities amongst all players, including humans, manual equipment, and other machines, that efficiency gain increases to over 116%”.. 

By responding to task assignments in real time, Pivotal helps manufacturers, warehousing and distribution centers remain agile and build a long-term competitive edge. 

 

Give us your thoughts on what the future holds for manufacturers and the supply chain.

Consumer expectations for faster delivery and lower costs are impacting every aspect of the supply chain. As a result, the robotics industry will grow exponentially in the next decade as manufacturers embrace automation – and orchestration – as a solution to meeting these rising expectations. Automation alone isn’t the answer.

At Vecna Robotics, we believe that the future of the supply chain relies on orchestration to truly reap the benefits of automation. By considering the unique strengths of all agents within a distribution center, from workers to manual handling equipment, for example, orchestration maximizes human-robot potential and workflow optimization. We believe that orchestration will play a large role in the supply chain in the coming years as companies look for ways to further optimize processes. 

 

The content & opinions in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily represent the views of RoboticsTomorrow

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