The robotics company Magazino has won ASICS as a customer for the mobile picking robot TORU. The leading sports performance brand ASICS will use the robots at its European Distribution Center (EDC) in Krefeld, Germany. By using the TORU robot, ASICS is implementing a flexible automation for the manual picking process in their shoe warehouse.
With the implementation of intelligent and mobile picking robots, ASICS is one of the innovative pioneers in the industry. The continuing growth in e‑commerce and ever smaller batch sizes require automation solutions that can be flexibly adapted and scaled as required. The mobile picking robot TORU works completely autonomously with the help of 3D-camera technology, numerous sensors and can operate both at weekends and at night. TORU reduces the typical order peaks in e‑commerce and improves customer service by providing faster processing of urgent orders.
Michael Gryszko-Prattes, Head of European Distribution Center at ASICS, says: “With the Magazino robots, we can not only cover the increasing order volume better and ensure our flexibility in automation, but also support our EDC staff in the fast storage and retrieval of orders — especially for very small orders. We also see the TORU robot as an opportunity to become even better in terms of speed, quality assurance, same-day order processing and overnight picking”.
With its vacuum gripper, TORU grasps individual shoe boxes from the shelving system, transports them to the handover station and also stows returns. Via Wi-Fi, the robot is not only connected to ASICS’ warehouse management system (WMS), but also to a local and global cloud from Magazino. With this connection and the use of artificial intelligence, TORU learns from its experiences every day, improves its own performance and robustness and at the same time shares the knowledge with its robot colleagues in the fleet.
One of the key advantages of TORU is the ability to be integrated into the existing warehouse environment in Krefeld without any modifications necessary. TORU can relieve the employees of less ergonomic tasks, for example when picking from the bottom or top shelf or from particularly long walking distances in the warehouse. Thanks to numerous sensors, the TORU robot perceives its environment in real time, detects people or obstacles in its path and therefore operates in a safe way alongside humans in the same work area. With up to 18 hours of operating time, TORU can also operate at night or outside core working hours.
The Magazino robots are already in operation at several customers in Germany and Europe. Among the users are the logistics service provider FIEGE Logistics and the online platform ZALANDO. In contrast to many other robotic solutions on the market, TORU can not only autonomously pick individual articles or transport them in the warehouse but can also cover both process steps simultaneously.