ОРЕАНДА-НОВОСТИ. DHL is currently testing Baxter and Sawyer, two smart and collaborative robots, in its warehouses on co-packing and value-added tasks, such as assembly, kitting, packaging and pre-retail services. Rethink Robotics' Baxter and Sawyer are smart, adaptable solutions that support warehouse staff and could help to enhance productivity at DHL facilities.

"Historically, the distribution environment has been difficult to automate using traditional industrial robots, which do not respond well to variability," says Matthias Heutger, SVP Strategy, Marketing & Innovation, DHL Customer Solutions & Innovation. "In our recently published DHL Trend Report "Robotics in Logistics" we found that 80 percent of logistics facilities today are still manual due to the complexity of the operations. As technology improves however, the logistics industry is benefitting from the adoption of collaborative robots to improve efficiency," he adds.

DHL is currently testing how to integrate several Baxter and Sawyer robots into various operational sites across the globe. DHL also recently purchased its first Sawyer robot and its research entails 3D printing possibilities to create specialized grippers for the robots to allow for additional tasks to be completed in the warehouse.

With Baxter and Sawyer, DHL is now able to leverage automation that can adapt to real world variability, change applications quickly and perform tasks like people do.