Robot on the line

Real-world problems

The same shift is taking place among logistics technology suppliers.

At Guangzhou-based Genye Technology, engineers have developed a three-dimensional sorting system aimed at two persistent problems in warehousing — long picking routes and limited floor space.

"Warehouse pickers used to spend much of their time walking back and forth between shelves. When orders surged, they were constantly on their feet, while labor and space costs kept rising," said Zuo Wen, general manager of the company's innovation business center.

"We developed the 3D sorting wall precisely to address those practical problems on the front line."

Instead of spreading sorting destinations across a large horizontal area, the system uses AI vision to identify items and scheduling software to direct them to vertically arranged compartments, allowing more sorting positions to be packed into a smaller footprint.

Genye said its larger systems can process up to 20,000 items an hour while taking up roughly half the space of conventional layouts.

The example illustrates how logistics technology is increasingly being designed around specific operational bottlenecks rather than automation for its own sake.

That technology is also moving out of warehouses and processing centers.

In Foshan, also in Guangdong, autonomous delivery vehicles are being tested on routes connecting express outlets, parcel stations and other logistics nodes. The city currently has 124 postal and express delivery autonomous vehicles involved in road testing across 219 routes, according to the Foshan Postal Administration.

Some companies are also experimenting with shared autonomous transport, allowing retailers and other small businesses to summon unmanned vehicles when they need to move goods rather than purchasing vehicles themselves.

The model points to a wider possibility of autonomous vehicles eventually becoming flexible urban logistics capacity rather than equipment dedicated to a single company.