Geek+America , COO Americas Mark Messina in an exclusive interview with Freightcomms to tell us more abouts AI-driven global warehouse robotics market
How is industrial automation changing the new ways of doing business?
The impact of automation is quite large– depending on which hardware or software you’re using, it will affect everything from the production process to the delivery of goods. It’s easy to underestimate the impact of automation on product quality, transport, and delivery experience. Customers have come to expect levels of service that were unobtainable before the scale-up of industrial automation.
How are Geek+ autonomous robots becoming the primary differentiator in the global warehouse robotics market?
Our solutions enable companies to provide a superior customer experience. Today, three-days-or more delivery is no longer accepted, with customers preferring stores that offer free same-day or next-day delivery. Our systems enable real-time accurate delivery estimates to fulfill customer expectations. Apart from providing visibility, our systems empower fulfillment centers to deliver goods in ten seconds compared to a minute or more in traditional fulfillment centers. This allows the order to be completed to satisfy the customers’ need for instant gratification while reducing the cost per item fulfilled.
Could you tell us more about your AI-driven mobile robot solutions?
Our integrated software and hardware platforms leverage machine learning to optimize the utilization of physical assets. There are many aspects to this; key elements include the real estate utilization by optimizing storage density, robot assets through logical task management, route and maintenance management, energy conservation, and human resources. These assets are applied in the most efficient and effective way. In essence, Geek+ lets robots do what robots do well, and humans do what humans do well.
What is the future of distribution centers in terms of the automation industry?
We’re working on this. We will continue to apply machine learning and AI techniques to further upstream and leverage cloud compute and 5G connectivity in the near future. This enables Geek+ to share optimizations in real-time across all of our deployments. In the long term, we see further commoditization of hardware while operational intelligence continues to be refined. Geek+ makes highly complex, highly integrated mission-critical systems flexible, reliable, scalable while offering in-depth and actionable data to the operator.
Is sustainable operations an important point of consideration with mass handling of volumes in warehouses? How is Geek+ contributing to sustainable operations and waste management?
Sustainability is not only an environmental and financial issue, but it has become a cultural issue as well. Our systems are especially efficient in that robots will only carry an item if there’s an order command. Traditional systems tend to run many elements, such as conveyors, that operate and consume as much power carrying one item as they do carrying 1000’s of items. Therefore, peak and nominal demand consume similar power. Geek+ robots only consume the power required to operate. This has a cascade effect as energy consumed by a device in a building generates heat, requiring more energy to cool the building by that amount. It’s a double whammy environmentally, or for us, a big win.
What are Geek+ plans in terms of global expansion?
Geek+ plans to continue the expansion of our already broad and deep product portfolio with the goal to provide flexible, scalable, and functional automation. As eCommerce business continues to be more dynamic and unpredictable, our end users can invest in systems that will help them to quickly scale and grow their business. We believe that by offering this value, we will maintain our position as the world’s biggest logistics robot provider.