Issue 39 Unmanned Systems Technology August/September 2021 Maritime Robotics Mariner l Simulation tools focus l MRS MR-10 and MR-20 l UAVs insight l HFE International GenPod l Exotec Skypod l Autopilots focus l Aquaai Mazu

72 T he use of mobile robots in logistics has been growing for several years now, with many warehouses around the world having introduced automated guided vehicles (AGVs) that can fill in for humans in mundane or repetitive tasks by following lines of tape or rails along the floor for guidance. AGVs lack intelligence, however; if their floor-based guidance system breaks down they rapidly become useless, and they rarely possess the autonomy for carrying out tasks much more complicated than traversing from a given point A to point B. Higher levels of autonomy will be needed though if UGVs are to provide a valuable service in the gargantuan warehouses needed for 21st century e-commerce companies, and to make up for the current shortfalls in labour. France-based Exotec is a fast-growing name in such highly intelligent warehouse logistics, with its Skypod U3DV – the company’s term for ‘unmanned three- dimensional vehicle’ – and warehouse infrastructure technology being rapidly adopted by multinational retail giants including supermarket chain Carrefour and sporting goods retailer Decathlon. “Our two founders, Romain Moulin and Renaud Heitz, worked for years on medical AGVs at General Electric, but in 2014 when they saw how Amazon had bought Kiva Systems and kept its AGV tech for themselves, they decided to found their own intelligent U3DV company,” says Rudi Lueg, Exotec’s managing director in North America. “They felt confident they could design far better robots and logistics infrastructure than those Kiva had produced.” Early on in their new venture, Exotec’s founders spoke to Cdiscount, an online retailer that competes with Amazon in France, to find out exactly what it needed and why conventional AGV tech had failed to provide that. Cdiscount confirmed that typical retail AGVs were clumsy and not accurate enough for e-commerce logistics. Lueg says, “Accuracy is another important factor. For conventional B2B retail, that’s not an issue. For example, This warehouse UGV system overcomes many of the drawbacks with traditional technology. Rory Jackson looks at how it works Sense of fulfilment August/September 2021 | Unmanned Systems Technology