Swisslog, a global leader in robotic, data-driven and flexible automated solutions, announced the launch of its latest robot-based solution ItemPiQ, designed for repeated, reliable picking of a wide range of items to fulfill fast delivery of orders at low operating costs. With picking and palletizing making up to 60% of warehouse operational costs, the ItemPiQ robot can handle a wide variety of common products in retail, e-commerce and pharmaceutical industries weighing up to 1.5 kg and can reach 1100 mm. By using 3D vision technology for object recognition, ItemPiQ's unique gripper can pick up to 1,000 items per hour and allows picking of a wide range of products of different shapes and sizes, error-free. Alain Kaddoum, General Manager at Swisslog Middle East, said "according to a recently published report by global management consultancy firm Bain & Company, the e-commerce market in the Middle East & North Africa is expected to reach $28.5 billion by 2022. The UAE itself has the highest penetration in the region with 4.2%, followed by KSA - 3.8% and Egypt - 2.5%. We are committed to supporting Middle Eastern retail and e-commerce companies to help them achieve fast product delivery, high accuracy, and reduce operational costs. Swisslog's intelligent automated item picking applications like ItemPiQ address the warehouse requirements of today as well as help our customers prepare for the challenges of tomorrow." Being one of the fastest robots today from KUKA AGILUS, ItemPiQ is operational 24/7 and can pick and place a wide range of single SKUs from a source into a target bin, measuring weight of product and identifying other metrics. Built-in intelligence within its software enables ItemPiQ to learn as it picks. Smart software allows it to identify and develop picking strategies of unknown products even without the use of CAD or 360° pictures of products. Different suction modes in combination with 4 different mechanical grasping methods are selected based on product characteristics and according to the item to be grasped. This allows ItemPiQ to adapt to most customers' applications while standard interface allows to connect ItemPiQ to any WMS system. Seamless integration into the SynQ warehouse management system is also possible. All generated data will be stored in the SynQ database where experts can apply intelligent algorithms. ItemPiQ is unparalleled in its flexibility and intelligence, and the new software architecture is fully prepared for future applied artificial intelligence capabilities. — SG
