With Companies looking to improve efficiency and Speed for Various Processes right from Receipt of Raw Material to the Despatch of Finished Goods. Elevators have become an essential part of the factories in the movement of Goods within the Factory Premises.
Elevators are used for Various Purposes in an industrial setup right from Carrying Goods and Man to various Levels for inspection of the Machineries to Carrying of Raw Material to various Levels to use it for Production Purposes. In a Multilevel Storage facilities, Elevators are used to Store Goods at Various Levels. Hence Elevators are a crucial part of the Working of a Factory and sometimes breakdown in a Elevator means Product Loss or Delays in Despatches.
Now with the companies looking to use Robots and Robotics for various Purposes including movement of Goods to improve efficiency so much so that Dark Factories are now a reality. In this Scenario when an Elevator plays a Crucial Part in Movement of material, the elevators have to be integrated with the Robot System or other System which integrates the Robots with the Elevator System. This means No man power will be required to load, unload and move the Goods in and Out of the Elevator and all will be taken care of by the Robots, the integration and Communication Systems between the Robots and the Elevator.
The Main Communication that seems to happen in such a scenario following Communication is required between the Robot and the Elevator System
- Robot requests for a lift at a particular Floor in front of the lift.
- The Lift accepts the request and Starts Moving in that Direction. Reaches the Floor Level and Opens the Door for the Robot. The Elevator Communicates that the Lift has reached the desired Floor, the Lift Door is Open and Robot can now Proceed to enter the Elevator.
- Robot Then Communicates which Floor it has to travel to.
- The Lift Accepts this command and moves to the desired floor Level. Once it reaches the floor then it opens the door and communicates to the robot that it is free to move out of the Elevator.
- Once the Robot has moved out of the elevator, the Robot communicates to the Lift that it is out and the lift is now free to take any other call requests.
The Above process at first seems simple and pretty logical just simulating human behaviour of calling the lift and then using it to reach a desired floor and then moving out of the lift at the desired floor level. While it is similar to that, there are a lot of sensors, devices and other mechanical and electrical equipment’s ensuring that the Robot and the Elevator are in complete coordination with each other.
Total coordination is required between the elevator system and the Robot in real time to know that the Robot can move into and exit the elevator. A small Difference means things can go wrong. For Example A small Levelling Difference in the Elevator to the Floor Level means nothing to a human while for a Robot it might completely break down stopping all the process almost immediately and then requiring human intervention.
One such system where the Factory will be working completely autonomous without the need for human intervention. This means the Robots will carry the raw Material through the Elevators for feeding the Feeders and then the Finished Goods will be transported to a Different Floor for Storage Purposes.
There are so many aspects for such development of such Elevator systems right from the Communication layer to communicate with the Robots to the Mechanical Systems while considering all the aspects and the limitation of the both the Systems. Factors include the weight of the Robots, the wheel size of the robots and other Limitations of the Robot and the Elevator and their integrating systems. The Robot may be partly controlled through Scada and communication between the elevator and the Robot can be through SCADA or directly from the Robot to the Elevator.
While Communication between the two seems to be a major factor, lots of Mechanical factors also affect the Smooth working of the two. Factors like stretch in the Wire Rope during the Robot entering the Elevator can be a major deciding factor which will make or break the entire automation leading to a Stop in the Process. Factors like Precise Levelling Every time for the Elevator makes a huge Difference in the Robot movement.
I believe the industries will strongly take up automation to improve efficiency and we will see a large number of Elevators which will be working in sync with the AMR (Automated Mobile Robots) and AGV (Automated Guided Vehicles) which will be a large part of the Goods Movement within the Factories, especially in the factories like the Chemical or Pharmaceutical Plants having Hazardous Zones and are not suitable for the Human working conditions or even other warehouses like the major retail warehouses where a swarm of robot are deployed to carry Products and shelves from one place to another, elevators will form a major link for the entire automation process.
Blue Star Elevators is Capable of handling such Projects and is involved in similar Projects for Major Industrial manufacturers. You can visit website at www.bluestarelevator.com.