Automated Shipboard Build-up of Customized Pallet Loads Navy SBIR FY2010.1 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2010.1 Topic No.: N101-091 Topic Title: Automated Shipboard Build-up of Customized Pallet Loads Proposal No.: N101-091-1150 Firm: Robotics Research Corporation 4480 Lake Forest Drive Suite 408 Cincinnati, Ohio 45242 Contact: James Farrell Phone: (513) 831-9570 Web Site: www.robotics-research.com Abstract: In this program Robotics Research Corporation (RRC) will develop an efficient, portable and agile material handling system (MHS), which enables autonomous shipboard de-palletizing and rapid build-up of customized pallet loads comprised of a diverse and precise mix of equipment and supplies to support military operations ashore. The MHS will fulfill the US Navy logistics objectives of substantially increasing throughput, while significantly reducing the labor requirement and inventory errors. The modular, scalable, portable and interoperable design characteristics of the MHS will permit it to be optimally configured for each unique installation site. RRC will evaluate and integrate proven commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies to address issues such as automatic configuration generation of customized pallet loads, operations research based strategies to optimally queue outgoing items, and robust, vision based object recognition and localization techniques. In Phase I, RRC will provide a conceptual design of a class of end effectors to address the wide range of material handling requirements and will specify a scalable work cell layout and a configurable servomechanism and control approach to achieve maximum throughput. The technology base will be extensible to support more advanced levels of delivery systems in future deployments. Benefits: An effective autonomous de-palletizing and palletizing capability relieves the support personnel from being immersed in the arduous and injury and error prone duty of assembling customized pallet loads and promotes a high utilization rate and scalability of assets. The automation of the palletizing operation will highlight the deficiencies and limiting factors of the other components of the shipboard material handling process, which will provide impetus for improvement and further efficiencies. The open source policy of RRC for the Department of Defense (DOD) will permit other investigators to build upon the advancements that are established in this program. In addition to benefiting the military sector, the material handling technology will have a significant presence in hazardous waste handling and sampling, nuclear decommissioning, flexible manufacturing and particularly in the supply chain management applications. Return