Seasonality, labor shortages and increasingly fast turnaround times are just some of the issues that keep fulfillment and logistics managers awake at night. During waking hours, bleary-eyed discussions about process improvement, throughput rates and KPIs dominate the landscape. As a result, phones are ringing at Dorabot, an Atlanta-based startup.
Dorabot provides integrated robotic solutions that efficiently and accurately complete the types of tasks that are often repetitive, difficult and strenuous. A prime example is the DoraSorter, a modern sortation product that features a strong, reliable and precise FANUC industrial robot equipped with a Dorabot-patented conveyor belt end-effector. Capable of sorting over 1,100 items per hour, the robot’s “eyes” are located within a scanning tunnel affixed with a high-speed barcode scanner and a high-definition RGBD camera. Using a custom rack system, the robot can deliver items weighing up to 15 pounds to 100 or more destinations including totes, bags and put walls.
“FANUC has a reputation for providing stellar customer service worldwide,” explains Jian Shi, lead engineer in Dorabot’s Atlanta office. “It’s also a good feeling to integrate a robot arm and know that the hardware has a 100,000 hour mean time between failure (MTBF) rating. It provides a high level of comfort for our company and our customers.”
To confront warehouse labor turnover attributed to the strain and burnout of pallet building, Dorabot offers DoraPalletizer, an innovative mixed-SKU palletizing robot that autonomously builds a superior pallet. Integrating a FANUC M-410 series robot designed specifically for palletizing, Dorabot marries the machine with AI load planning software, vision, motion planning and more. The DoraPalletizer is able to palletize up to 120 inches tall. Equipped with a Dorabot custom gripper, the robot’s reach extends 131 inches from the center of the robot, and it can lift and place boxes weighing as much as 200 pounds.
For a current customer’s application, the DoraPalletizer is surrounded by seven pallets, allowing a single-mixed SKU target pallet to be built from as many as six feeder pallets in one robot cell. Pallets can be moved out and replaced using DoraJack, Dorabot’s autonomous pallet jack, or by manual movement. Four LIDAR fields surround the robot cell and provide a barrierless safety zone, which will e-stop the robot if an unexpected object enters the cell.
“We are repeatedly impressed by the talent and capabilities of Dorabot,” said James Cooper, general manager of FANUC America’s U.S. Regional Offices, ASI Network, Executive Sales Team and CERT Sales. “Robotic applications for fulfillment are in high demand, and I’m looking forward to seeing the next project deployed in the field!”