Keeping Your Hand In

When a warehouse seeks an automated solution, the desired outcome is usually an increased flow, a reduction in labour, greater accuracy and shorter picking times.?

Nearly all the pain points are identified and eliminated. However, there remains one area where a human operative is still the best solution – the picking from a tote of items that vary in weight, size, texture and shape.

The human hand is a remarkable tool – over a quarter of the body’s 206 bones are located in the hands. I didn’t appreciate just how remarkable it is until meeting boffins who are trying to design and build a robotic hand that is at best almost as good as our own God-given appendage. Whilst its dexterity and grasping force can be crudely replicated using sophisticated componentry, we’re still a long way off matching the hand’s ability to detect and transmit additional information to the brain, such as moisture, temperature and slipperiness.

So, when I tour a state-of-the-art automated eCommerce warehouse, it comes as a bit of a shock – albeit a pleasant one – to see actual human beings are still being deployed to perform a mission-critical function. For now…

Peter MacLeod ????, Editor

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