Yandex: Warehouse robots

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• Robots (robotics)
• Industrial robots

2022: Development of prototypes of warehouse robots for Yandex.Market and Yandex.Lavka

Yandex announced on August 5, 2022, the development of two prototypes of warehouse robots. The task of one of them is to inventory the goods that are stored in the logistics complex of the Market, and the other is to move the goods in the darkstore of the Shop, lay them out on the shelves and bring them to order collectors. Both robots will help speed up warehouse processes and free people from monotonous tasks so they can tackle more complex and interesting tasks in the warehouse.

The robot inventory is already involved in the large logistics complex of Market, which is located situated near Moscow in Sofyina. This robot scans QR codes on packages with large goods - for example, household appliances with or dry food for - animals and enters data into the warehouse accounting system. Such goods are stored on high racks in several tiers. The robot has a mast 12 m high, and it takes the scanner even to the goods on the uppermost shelves. The robot is equipped with lidar ultrasonic sensors cameras and all this helps it navigate in space and move safely both for itself and for the people around it.

Robot storekeeper Lavka, as of August 5, 2022, is at the prototype stage. It will move goods within the darkstore. For example, when a client makes an order in Lavka, the robot will take the required amount of goods from the shelves and bring the warehouse employee to collect the purchase. Yandex creates a robot Lavka compact, maneuverable and resistant to low temperature, which is maintained in warehouses with products. The robot is able to act in both small and large rooms - and moves along routes of different complexity. For example, he can ride in a circle and change the trajectory of movement without turning. High mobility is a feature of this prototype in front of other logistics robots, which are usually designed to work only in spacious rooms and move along geometrically simple routes.

For example, the Market robot scans QR codes of goods on one pallet in less than a second, and it takes an average of up to 2 minutes for a person to do so - and this does not take into account the time that the latter spends on reaching the necessary goods. The robot copes much faster, because when it passes along the rack, it scans the entire vertical row of pallets with goods on it at once - and so row by row.

The Market and Lavka teams themselves completely designed and assembled both robots. Prototypes run on Yandex's own software.

Yandex will continue to develop prototypes. For example, as of August 5, 2022, the Market robot serves a warehouse area of ​ ​ about 1 thousand square meters. m, in the future this figure will increase to 20 thousand square meters. m. And robotic storekeepers Shops will take on up to 75% of all tasks related to the movement of goods in darkstorms - from acceptance to issuance of orders for assembly.