‘DRONES MAKE STOCK-TAKING QUICKER’
Singapore company offers solution to reduce costs of warehousing
MALAYSIA’S heavy reliance on foreign workers to carry out menial tasks at warehouses could be alleviated as a Singapore start-up introduces drone technology for inventory stock-taking.
“We’re talking about hundreds of millions or billions of cost savings for the warehousing industry,” said Infinium Robotics chief executive officer Woon Jun Yang , adding that drone usage is a logical step that makes businesses more efficient.
"For companies looking to automate repetitive tasks and be less labour intensive, we have the solution,” he told NST Business in an interview here.
Formerly a commander with the Singapore Navy, Woon is putting to good use what he learned during his stint with the military to run his start-up, Infinium Robotics.
The 34-year-old said his team works on the design and development of drones for warehouse stock-taking and aerial display shows at theme parks.
Most of the time, drones are flown outdoors. Woon said one can measure the errors in metres and it still works because there is so much space.
“When indoors, you might be able to get signals through opening of windows or doors but your position is not accurate,” he said.
To counter this, Infinium Robotics has developed its own know-how. The drones’ indoor positioning technology can measure accuracy to the centimetre, while its camera system can measure accuracy to the millimetre.
Woon said his company’s drones are capable of hovering along the aisles of the warehouse and scanning goods using a barcoding technology.
At the end of the inventory scanning cycle, the drones will send signals back to the warehouse management system.
“So, there is no need for employees to operate the indoor drones, freeing them up for other tasks,” he said.
“Drones and other kinds of robots cannot replace humans entirely but they can do repetitive and boring tasks much faster and consistently, without complaints,” he said.
He went on to highlight that well-calibrated drones are capable of speeding up stock-taking at warehouses from 30 days to just two days.