With this innovation, logisticians can automate inventory in warehouses, and identify and correct storage errors throughout the year.
An indoor drone for logistics
While drones have already sharpened the most fertile imaginations for outdoor use in all fields, indoor uses are still marginal. For Hardis Group, particularly because of their size and their ability to hover and fly laterally, their use in warehouses opens up new prospects for logistics: this was how the inventory-taking drone project was born.
This innovation has several components: a device that allows the drone to move autonomously by means of integrated mapping of the warehouse and a predetermined flight plan. This is coupled with a system for identifying and capturing - with an on-board camera - the information to be treated in order to make the inventory, for associating the image with its position in the warehouse (indoor geolocation) and automatically translating its 3D position into a logistics address (storage location).
A permanent inventory and reduced risk of errors
The system developed by Hardis Group is able to recognize and control the relevant data for the inventory. So when several logistics labels are placed on a pallet (the provider's, the carrier's, the warehouseman's, etc.) the drone is able to identify the one that is useful for inventory control. The on-board technology can handle all barcode formats on the market.
The information collected by the on-board systems on the drone (barcode data and position in the warehouse) can be used by any warehouse management software (Warehouse Management Systems, WMS) on the market.
With this innovation, a daily inventory made every night, for example, is about to become a reality in warehouses. This "permanent" inventory will provide logisticians with accurate visibility of these goods in the warehouse, and the ability to quickly identify and correct storage errors.