The video explores the advanced AI-robot managed e-commerce warehouse operated by BrightPick, detailing how robots handle picking, packing, and replenishing orders efficiently. A behind-the-scenes glimpse shows how the system facilitates operations, enabling 24/7 service, picking up to 50,000 items daily with minimal human intervention. With robots like BrightPick AutoPickers, items are chosen without error, supported by AI and machine learning technologies that optimize and improve their performance.

By integrating robotic and human tasks, such as goods-to-person stations and pallet picking, the warehouse achieves a seamless operational flow. This combination ensures efficiency, as robots can perform various tasks from robotic picks to assisting humans in picking at goods-to-person stations. The system supports peak times' demand with features like order buffer stations and automated packaging, enhancing productivity while reducing costs.

Main takeaways from the video:

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Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. autopicker [ˈɔːtəˌpɪkər] - (noun) - A type of robot used in warehouses to automatically pick items from shelves. - Synonyms: (automated selector, robotic picker, autonomous picker)

This entire operation is managed by 48 BrightPick autopicker robots.

2. grippable [ˈɡrɪpəbl] - (adjective) - Having a surface or feature that allows it to be easily held or grasped. - Synonyms: (grab-able, hold-able, graspable)

Whether that's due to a lack of a smooth, grippable surface, excessive weight, or an unstable center of gravity.

3. buffer [ˈbʌfər] - (noun) - A temporary storage area used to manage differences in processing speed between systems. - Synonyms: (cushion, interstice, intermediate storage)

Either the robot can take the order tote directly to pack out, or if the order isn't ready to go out immediately, the robot can temporarily buffer the order tote inside the system.

4. decanting [dɪˈkæntɪŋ] - (verb) - The process of transferring liquid or material from one container to another, especially to leave sediment behind. - Synonyms: (pouring off, transferring, separating)

Well, that all starts here at the decanting station.

5. kitting [ˈkɪtɪŋ] - (noun) - Grouping related items together in a single package or unit, often used in warehouses for bundled orders. - Synonyms: (bundling, grouping, assembling)

Now this also works great for kitting, where you can have designated stations to assemble custom customer bundles.

6. dynamic slotting [daɪˈnæmɪk ˈslɒtɪŋ] - (noun) - Technique used in warehousing to optimize placement of items for efficient access based on demand. - Synonyms: (adaptive storage, flexible positioning, adjustable localization)

The robots use a technique called dynamic slotting to strategically place these totes into optimal storage locations.

7. lidar [ˈlaɪdɑːr] - (noun) - A method for measuring distances by illuminating the target with laser light and measuring the reflection. - Synonyms: (laser imaging, light detection, laser radar)

These robots, they can navigate all on their own using lidar and AI.

8. orchestrates [ˈɔːrkəstreɪts] - (verb) - To carefully arrange or organize a complex operation or activity. - Synonyms: (coordinates, manages, directs)

This software orchestrates all robot workflows, directing each robot on what task to complete.

9. skew [skjuː] - (noun) - Stock keeping unit; a unique identifier for each individual product or service that can be purchased. - Synonyms: (product code, item number, product ID)

Additionally, the software tracks every tote and skew within the system.

10. intuition [ˌɪntuˈɪʃən] - (noun) - Ability to understand something instinctively without the need for conscious reasoning. - Synonyms: (insight, instinct, feeling)

Think of BrightPick intuition as the conductor of an orchestra.

World’s most advanced robotic warehouse (AI automation)

This is the world's most advanced e-commerce warehouse, run entirely by AI robots. This entire operation is managed by 48 BrightPick autopicker robots. And these robots handle everything from replenishing inventory to robotically picking orders and getting them ready for dispatch.

That's how this facility operated by a leading sports nutrition retailer, The feed, is able to work 24/7 and pick 50,000 items per day, all while just using a handful of actual people. This is the future of e-commerce fulfillment, and I am going to be taking you behind the scenes to give you a closer look at the cutting-edge technology and processes that make all of this possible.

From robotic picking to human picking, order buffering, pack out, and stock replenishment. We're even going to hear from the people who work inside this warehouse and hear directly from them about what it's like to work alongside these robots. So you'll definitely want to stay tuned till the end so you don't miss out on that.

At the heart of any e-commerce operation is picking customer orders. Now, in a traditional warehouse setting, that also happens to be one of the most grueling jobs. Imagine walking two marathons a week just to fulfill customer orders.

Here, we do things a little bit differently. Think of these BrightPick auto pickers as humans with carts moving in and out of the warehouse aisles autonomously, picking and consolidating orders without ever getting tired or making a mistake. Here's how it works. The robot starts by grabbing an empty box called a tote, which is where it will collect picked items from one or multiple customer orders.

It then heads into the storage area, picks the necessary items from the storage totes, and places them into the order tote, like a diligent little shopper checking every item off its list. And the robot does this repeatedly until the entire order is picked and ready to go.

So how is it that these robots know exactly what to pick and when? Well, that's all made possible by AI using the data from this 3D scanner. The AI maps out all of the individual items inside the storage tote and identifies the optimal picking point for each item based on its size, shape, and form.

The best part is that these robots don't care what they're picking. Whether it's a bottle, a poly bag, or something completely new, the AI technology ensures that these robots can reliably pick items even if they've never seen them before.

The best part is, let's say this robot does fumble a pick. Well, it's actually going to learn from its mistake using machine learning and improve for its next attempt.

Now, inevitably, there are going to be some items that these robots just can't pick on their own, whether that's due to a lack of a smooth, grippable surface, excessive weight, or an unstable center of gravity. Well, that is where these goods-to-person stations come into play.

These stations function similarly to the robotic picking, only instead of a robotic arm moving items from one tote to the next, a human operator steps in, assisted by this intuitive user interface found right here on each robot.

What's impressive about this setup is that each station can handle up to four robots at one time from all four sides, ensuring that there is zero idle time between picks for the operator. Working with the robots is a lot different than our old location. At our old warehouse, we had to walk around with a box and manually pick everything, and sometimes the boxes were empty, and we'd have to go find things.

Now it's much more automated. We don't obviously have to do that anymore. The robots do all the picking for us, and we can just focus on packing and getting the product out the door.

Training on the system was pretty seamless, actually. I don't really remember training other than we just kind of wait for the robot to approach us, push the button, and send it on its way.

Now let's talk about the final picking process known as pallet picking, which is meant for fast-moving items and bundles. Imagine you have a few bestselling products, or you're running a promotion with a free gift for every order.

Storing these items within the automated system wouldn't make sense because you'd be replenishing them almost as fast as you were picking them out, kind of like trying to refill a leaky bathtub. So instead, these items are stored manually in cases or on pallets, the same way they arrived at the warehouse.

Here is where human workers step in to pick the items directly from the pallets, and then they will place them into the order totes which are carried by the robots. The autopickers pull up to the designated pallet positions, request items that they need on the tablet, and the human operator quickly fetches them from behind.

This method not only speeds up the picking process for these high-demand items, but it also makes replenishment incredibly simple. This also works great for kitting, where you can have designated stations to assemble custom customer bundles that the robots then pick up.

So as you can see, the beauty in the BrightPick solution is the seamless integration of all of these components, from robotic picking to goods-to-person and pallet picking, all within the same system. For example, Bolt here could start off his day with a few robotic picks, then move on over to G2P picking, and then finish his day by handling some pallet picks, making this entire operation seamless and efficient.

Once an order has been fully picked, one of two things will happen. Either the robot can take the order tote directly to pack out, or if the order isn't ready to go out immediately, the robot can temporarily buffer the order tote inside the system and then retrieve it for pack out when it's needed.

This feature offers two big advantages. First off, it allows the robots to continue picking orders overnight while everybody else is asleep, ensuring that the orders are ready to be packed and shipped as soon as that first morning shift comes in. Second, it helps to smooth out the picking volumes throughout the day, reducing the huge spikes that tend to happen during peak hours.

Both of these benefits enable this fulfillment center to ship out more orders every day without having to spend more money on automation or labor.

Now we're in the packout area, which is the final step before shipping orders out to customers. You can see that these packout stations are highly flexible, making it super easy to reconfigure them or add more stations.

This adaptability, combined with the order buffer, makes ramping up or down for peak season incredibly straightforward. And check this out. This warehouse features a fully automated packaging machine. It will take the picked items and automatically package them into cartons.

Honestly, I could watch this thing work all day. We were able to go from 50 to 100 people to completely automated with the Brightpex solution. Now, we had homes for all of the people that were already working here, so we didn't have to remove any staff because the business was growing fast enough. But we really could almost stop hiring.

Like when the employee said, wait, we don't have to do all this walking anymore, and we don't need to go pick this stuff. And now we can focus on finishing orders properly, doing the transfer from the BrightPick system to our automated packaging solution, they were thrilled.

So now that you've seen how orders are picked and packed, you're probably wondering, how is it that we replenish the inventory in storage? Well, that all starts here at the decanting station.

This is where human operators will transport transfer items from the cases into the individual storage totes. The robots then take these totes and autonomously move them back into storage.

The robots use a technique called dynamic slotting to strategically place these totes into optimal storage locations. For example, items that are meant for human picking are going to be stored closer to the goods-to-person stations, while fast-moving items are going to be stored closer to the pickout stations to minimize travel time.

This system can store up to 11,000 totes using 10-foot-tall shelving along with the additional pallet storage for the pallet picking. These shelves can be extended higher to increase storage capacity further, or you can split the storage totes into smaller compartments to maximize utilization.

At the core of the BrightPick philosophy is simplicity. Let the robots do the heavy lifting while everything else in this warehouse remains low-tech and straightforward.

Take the shelving, for instance; it's cheap, simple to assemble, and it can easily be moved or reconfigured. There's no conveyors and there's no complicated wire guides or QR codes on the floor for navigation.

These robots navigate all on their own using lidar and AI, all while maintaining incredible precision, passing within less than an inch of each other and their surroundings at speeds up to five miles an hour.

What's more is these robots, they'll stop if they see you, meaning there's no need for any safety fencing, and any certified technician or employee can step in without having to pause the entire operation.

All of this makes this system incredibly easy to install, scale, or even move to a different warehouse if needed.

The brain behind the entire operation is the Brighttick intuition software. This software orchestrates all robot workflows, directing each robot on what task to complete and when.

It also optimizes the travel paths for each of these robots for maximum speed and efficiency, ensuring that these robots take the shortest path possible without blocking or slowing each other down.

Think of BrightPick intuition as the conductor of an orchestra, ensuring that every robot plays its part in perfect harmony. Additionally, the software tracks every tote and skew within the system, maintaining full visibility and control over inventory.

It's connected directly to the warehouse's WMS system, and it's constantly exchanging order and inventory data, ensuring smooth and efficient operations.

And that is a wrap on our tour. Thank you so much for joining me on this journey into the future of e-commerce fulfillment.

Technology, Innovation, Business, Robotics, Ai, Warehouse Automation, Brightpick