Where’s the Signal? Warehouse Robots Are Searching for Stronger Internet Connections
Logistics companies say the latest automation technology demands new investment to keep the machines on track and goods moving
The new robots, drones and other technology tools filling the country’s distribution centers are finding one thing all too difficult to reach: a fast and reliable internet connection.
Robots that wheel through warehouse aisles to find and pick goods need a high-speed link to keep them on the right track. Autonomous forklifts require a signal to direct them as they move pallets from loading docks to storage racks. Self-driving trucks must maintain a GPS tie to get them on the right path from a manufacturing plant to a warehouse.
As companies upgrade their operations with increasingly sophisticated machines, many are finding the internet connections they have in place fall short of the needs of new, high-powered automation technology. For some, that can mean expensive and time-consuming upgrades to get logistics sites up to speed, industry experts say.
Companies frequently have “already selected technology to go deploy before this ever comes up,” said Nick Leonard, senior vice president of product for Norfolk, Va.-based logistics software provider SVT Robotics. “Often sites are running essentially their phone infrastructure or just basic internet for email browsing.”
The roadblock to automating highlights one of the challenges companies face as they add more technology to their logistics operations, from automating container terminals to using artificial intelligence to track shipments. The rapidly developing automation technology can help speed up operations and lift some of the burden off human workers, but the tools have a new set of requirements such as access to far more electrical power and a strong internet signal.
Building that capability can be particularly difficult for industrial operators that are located in rural areas far from existing infrastructure, or those in urban areas where there are heavy demands on the power grid.
Leonard said that upgrading a warehouse’s internet can be as simple as calling the internet provider to increase the bandwidth or as complicated as installing fiber-optic cable lines, antennas and server rooms, depending on the type of automation being added and the existing connections.
“That can get very expensive, in the millions of dollars, to solve those challenges,” Leonard said.
Some operators are installing private networks that run on high-speed 5G wireless cellular technology, which can provide faster and more stable internet than traditional Wi-Fi networks, experts say. About 45% of transportation executives and 35% of manufacturing executives surveyed by research firm Gartner last year said they planned to invest in 5G in the next 24 months.
The technology could help logistics operators ensure they have a strong, secure internet connection that can keep their robots running even if bad weather knocks out power or the facility is targeted in a cyberattack. The 5G networks can also provide a steadier connection than Wi-Fi for large buildings and for autonomous vehicles, particularly in remote locations, experts say.
“If you start thinking of autonomous vehicles or robots in general, they require many different types of sensor and visual data to take decisions and to operate autonomously, so that data has to reach them in a reliable and timely manner,” said Harpreet Dhillon, a computer engineering professor at Virginia Tech.
But there is a long way to go before 5G is widely adopted in industrial settings, partly because not all the warehouse automation on the market is able to run off 5G. Robots built to work with Wi-Fi often have to be adapted to 5G.
Those updates can take time, said Mike Johnson, president of warehouse automation firm Locus Robotics. Wilmington, Mass.-based Locus has been working for a few years on making its robots compatible with the cellular technology.
“We have the bots at these sites run 24 hours a day,” Johnson said. “The system has to be super-resilient, super-robust.”
Experts said another barrier to adoption is that 5G networks aren’t as widely understood as Wi-Fi.
“You take these organizations that are not very IT-forward and then throw in something like private [cellular networks], it’s going to be D.O.A.,” said Samuel Reeves, chief executive of Philadelphia-based warehouse automation provider Fort Robotics. “It’s not the way people think about wireless networking right now.”
GE Appliances, a subsidiary of home appliances company Haier Smart Home, has upgraded its internet as it has added robots and tested autonomous shuttles at its manufacturing facilities and warehouses in Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee.
Harry Chase, the company’s senior director for central materials, said there have been hiccups along the way.
As much as “we think we’re good to go on Wi-Fi, a lot of times we have to go in there and add extra antennas just because the signals become too weak for the robots to respond to,” Chase said. Without consistent internet, a robot will “start running and then all the sudden it stops, and you go, ‘OK, why did this stop?’” he said.
GE Appliances is rolling out self-driving shuttles by Swedish autonomous trucking startup Einride at facilities in Tennessee to transport items between the company’s buildings. The trucks, which run local routes that stretch a few miles, require a strong cellular connection to navigate the roads.
“We had to put Wi-Fi outside the building, we had to improve the 5G cell network, and we had to go in and hone in the GPS,” Chase said. “If the signal disappears for even a microsecond, the truck will actually come to an automatic stop, so these are the extra things you have to consider.”