Emerging Technologies – Warehouse Automation

In this series on emerging technologies, it has been notable how many of these technologies featured strongly at the Tax Stamp & Traceability Forum™ (TSTF) 2022. In this respect, however, warehouse automation is an interesting exception in that it hardly featured at that meeting.

The aim of this article is to illustrate why we should consider warehouse automation both as an emerging technology and an area with significant opportunities for our business.

Warehouse automation is also an example of looking outside our industry for opportunities. While there are similarities and overlap with factory automation, we should recognise that there are also differences, But, since we are concerned with traceability across the entire supply chain, we should consider both.

The key point of note here is that warehouse automation currently requires visual checks throughout the process and there are specific drivers that will influence this.

The drivers for warehouse automation

Warehouse automation can be traced back to the 1960s but exploded in the 2000s with e-commerce. It is currently undergoing a further revolution, triggered by supply chain reorganisation as a response to the unprecedented series of ‘black swan’ events of the pandemic, geopolitical upheaval, and war in Europe. Further to this, acute post-pandemic staff shortages need smarter working.

Effects on counterfeit levels in the supply chain of these events are, as yet, unquantified, but they probably do not tell a good story, unless you are a counterfeiter. There is a need to deal with this, and emerging technologies in warehouse automation may provide us with the solution.

A key element to automation is the marking of every item and visual inspection with some form of camera system, effectively creating a physical to digital link between the item and its place in the supply chain.

This physical to digital link (TSTN October 2022) is commonly facilitated by a printed barcode on a self-adhesive label. However, this seemingly simple solution can cause further problems for some in our sector.

The issue comes when the occasional label becomes detached and adheres elsewhere, for example on a conveyor belt.

The problem is that a label that is stuck to a conveyor belt looks like an item if it passes through the field of view of a simple camera system.

Various solutions being deployed to resolve this problem include the use of stereoscopic camera systems (is the label in the right plane?) or artificial intelligence (does it look like a label on a box?). One interesting opportunity that could flow from these implementations in warehouses is the potential to inspect and authenticate optical features.

Vision system opportunities

Vision systems to enable warehouse inspection is an area where there may be further opportunities for printed stamps or direct marking (TSTN November 2022).

One emerging area is short wave infrared (SWIR) cameras, a wavelength range that can penetrate thin films and print. There is the potential here for new security features and inks, and as these could be invisible to human vision, they could be stacked with other features to help with crowded label real estate on some packages.

There is another technology that we should be aware of with regard to vision systems in this environment. Having multiple cameras running within a warehouse or production process runs the risk of moving around huge amounts of data, especially if a cloud computing system is envisaged.

The alternative that appears to be gaining ground is edge computing. Rather than transmitting raw data to a central resource for processing and analysis, edge computing involves performing these tasks in the place where the data was generated, such as within the body of the camera itself.

For this purpose, the camera would need to contain image processing and decision-making software.

One final technology we should mention in a warehouse vision context is augmented reality glasses. Warehouse automation has been an early adopter of this technology and we should view this as a testbed of label reading for inspectors, using head- mounted devices. With the potential for 5G wireless connectivity within a warehouse system, these devices become a bridge into the concept of Industry 4.0.

The buzzwords of Industry 4.0 and 5.0

Industry 4.0 has been going on for some time too. For the purposes of this discussion, the key element is interconnectedness of the various parts in a process. This interconnectedness also leads to an alternative name for this: Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

There do not appear to be many large-scale success stories where IIoT is integrated across the entire supply chain, but (for the moment at least) vision systems appear key to this concept. These are already widely used in food safety inspection and process monitoring in manufacturing.

As vision systems could allow everything to be quality-inspected, including allowing codes to be read, this is an opportunity for stamps and traceability. For example, Omron already has an artificial intelligence (AI) system to check label artwork in an industrial setting.

Industry 4.0 has a pronounced technology focus, with IoT, AI and big data featuring strongly. One additional concept that features here is robotics, both from a production and a warehouse automation perspective.

A particularly interesting example is the cobot, the collaborative robot.

Cobots are robots that work beside human operatives. In this current environment, where warehouses face significant labour shortages and costs, these are looking increasingly attractive. They have a lower capital expenditure barrier than fully automated robotic manufacturing and are acquiring capabilities that are attractive to our sector.

For example, cobots are now available with integrated vision that reads label codes for the purposes of tracking and verification, so from our perspective we get this hardware for free from automation.

5.0 brings ESG dimension 

Industry 4.0 was a growth oriented, technology-based paradigm with an emphasis on efficiency and productivity. Industry 5.0 goes beyond this with emphasis on the contribution of industry to society.

It addresses pressing economic and societal challenges such as climate change, biodiversity, and resource scarcity to deal with the aforementioned global shocks.

There will be real pressure to implement this, particularly in Europe where the European Commission has issued an ‘Industry 5.0’ plan.

Industry 5.0 will bring with it a pronounced Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) agenda which will include the broader aspect of sustainability. This is an area we should explore further in this series.