Numina Group this week launched Batchbot 2.0. The company’s latest system integrates its flagship Real-time Distribution Software, or RDS-WES, with its advanced order-fulfillment picking suite and mobile robot Dispatcher Modules.
“Batchbot 2.0 represents best-in-class AMRs and people unified in a step-by-step move, pick, and validate order-fulfillment operation,” stated Dan Hanrahan, CEO of Numina Group. “The solution is ideally suited for 3PLs, e-commerce, and omnichannel manufacturing and industrial supply warehouses shipping both parcel and mixed product pallets for LTL [less-than-truckload] and truckload shipments.” “
“A facility can invest in a modular system with as few as seven to 10 AMRs, achieve ROI [return on investment] within 24 months, and add voice picking users and AMRs as order volume grows,” he added.
Founded in 1986, Numina Group integrates warehouse automation and develops software to improve throughput, reduce labor costs, and increase accuracy in North American manufacturing and distribution centers. The Woodridge, Ill.-based company provides design and facility site automation assessments, process design improvements, and a Tier 1 warehouse execution system (WES).
Batchbot 2.0 bridges gap between manual, automated operations
Midsize to large-volume warehouses are struggling with rising labor costs and demands for faster fulfillment, noted Numina Group. The company said Batchbot 2.0 offers a scalable alternative to high CapEx (capital expenditure) material handling automation.
By integrating KUKA’s fifth-generation AI-infused AMRs with Numina’s RDS Voice Picking Suite, the optimized “human-in-the-loop” system coordinates AMR and operator movement in zone-aisle, floor-based order picking.
Numina asserted that Batchbot 2.0 can save more than 20 minutes of wasted operator walk or fork truck drive time per hour, allowing operators to spend more time picking per hour to achieve 270 to 300+ case/line picks per hour. It said the system’s picking productivity rate rivals the performance of more expensive goods-to-person (G2P) and pallet shuttle storage and retrieval systems.
Numina upgrades RDS-WES software
Numina Group said the latest software upgrade to its RDS-WES Order Orchestration Layer adds decision optimization beyond the performance of the AMR fleet management system.
The RDS Dispatcher module, in combination with the Voice Picking Suite, employs a multi-parameter machine learning algorithm that evaluates pick operator positions. It uses voice commands to proactively move the closest available operators in real time to meet in-transit AMRs during the order-pick mission.
Numina listed key software innovation features and benefits:
- Weighted distance-time cost algorithm: The system dynamically calculates the closest operator to an AMR destination, directing them via pick-by-voice in a “meet me” mode. The company said this can eliminate 20+ minutes of non-value-added travel per operator, per hour.
- NVIDIA-powered AMRs using lidar + vision: KUKA’s fifth-generation AMRs use onboard NVIDIA processing for AI lidar and vision navigation to reduce AMR pick mission times by over 20%.
- Multi-AMR interoperability: A unified software layer manages a mixed fleet of KUKA AMRs with payloads ranging from 250 to 3,000 kg (551.1 to 6,613.8 lb.), supporting everything from unit-pick carts to heavy pallet movements.
- Batchbot 2.0 API: The software integrates with major ERP and WMS systems, including Oracle, Oracle JDE, SAP, Microsoft D365, Dynamics, JDA, Manhattan, HighJump, and others.
Numina stated that its system can handle picks in in complex, multi-zone, mixed-parcel, and LTL pallet order operations. It can reduce wasted travel time compared with legacy AMRs, fork trucks, and manual push carts.
In addition, the company claimed that end users can see an 18% to 22% improvement in end-to-end AMR pick trip time compared with a site’s previous Locus AMRs.