Dive Brief:

• The introduction of vision-guided autonomous forklifts increased two warehouses' productivity between 10% and 30%, Giant Eagle's Senior Vice President of Supply Chain Joe Hurley told Network World in an interview.
• Up to four Seegrid vision-guided vehicles operate in each of the Pittsburgh and Cleveland distribution centers, moving inbound freight to reserve rack aisles for manned high-lifts to store the goods. 
• The vehicles rely on five "stereo-pair cameras that operate similar to human eyes," according to Network World. The visually-guided technology allows facilities to implement autonomous vehicles wihtout additional infrastructure changes, such as magnets or segregated working lanes. 

Dive Insight:

Seegrid's vision-guided vehicles competitive advantage is what they do not do, says Hurley. Autonomously guided vehicles can often require widespread infrastructure shifts to ensure the vehicles can operate safely alongside their manned counterparts. 

The vehicles create a 3D map of the facility upon first use, when personnel "trains" the vehicle by driving it around the facility as it takes pictures recording its environment. Then, as it guides itself throughout the facility using its pre-recorded map, it compares the new images it receives to its old visual database to detect obstructions in its environment. 

However, the robots come at a cost. In the interview with Network World he cited a six-figure price tag and a need to convince workers that the technology was safe and would not replace their jobs. Hurley added that innovation is necessary for all companies and the introduction of the visually guided vehicles has allowed workers to gain new skills, such as maintaining the technology.