Automated WarehousesWe were presented with a challenge to develop an automated warehouse, but first we had to research and understand what an automated warehouse is. The basic principles involve automated storing and retrieving and this is what we focused on in our design, as shown in the videos below.
These huge automated warehouses are a way for big businesses to reduce the amount of labourers required to manage the warehouse by getting a robot to get an input from a user and then simply store or retrieve from where specified, in the case of this IKEA warehouse all information is stored in a computer and the user can simply select what item they want and the robot can go and retrieve it for them. Once the product has been removed the stock list gets updated and this is important to maintain the warehouse so the staff know when to reorder items, which products are selling and aren't selling, calculating total capital in the warehouse and knowing the space available for more products.
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Documentation throughout this challengeThe key points in an automated warehouse include the fact that they can support much more product in a smaller space. It is also more efficient in regards to employees and safety. We are shown an example of this in the IKEA automated warehouse video on the left. To develop our automated warehouse model following these practices such as locational memory and other factors that we gathered from research was a key feature to ensure our robot functioned as a model warehouse robot.
The use of diagrams, gantt charts and other design tools were of great assistance for us to define, understand and develop a solution in this challenge.
IPOGantt ChartStructure diagram |
Team communication
Me and my team member Chayce used verbal communication to develop, design and implement our ideas. We used programs such as team speak and Skype to do so. We also used a team forum to get our ideas across when the other member wasn't available at the time so when they were available they could catch up on the other members ideas.
for each challenge we started by creating a gantt chart to assist with scheduling each challenge and the overall project.
We planned when each member was available and used those time periods to work on the project.
We also had to plan the sequence in which we would undertake our project, we decided that the best way to do so was to take the project in order doing challenge 1 then 2 and finally 3 last. This worked well as our understanding from the previous challenge would transfer into the design and way we developed the next challenge.
Structured approach
Similar to the first challenge, we chose the structured approach for this challenge, as it suites the challenge best.
We need to undertake rigorous research and planning to successfully design and develop this automated warehouse.
Planning:
Planning for this challenge involved completely understanding what we had to do. To do this we conducted research on key industries such as the IKEA warehouse shown in my case study. This warehouse helped us to understand where to put the blocks and how to understand where to collect it from, in this warehouse they use locational memory and this is a key feature that we wanted to include in our design to successfully model the automated warehouse.
Designing:
Designing our automated warehouse was a challenge as we had to completely research what factors our case study used and how their robot worked, we saw that they used a rail system and we wanted to do this also as it was a simple way to keep the blocks being stored where they need to each time. We used Lego digital designer to model our automated warehouse and this was a huge help to plan and model our robot.
Implementation:
Implementing our design was simple with few errors encountered due to the use of the structured approach we had already eliminated most of the possible problems we could encounter. One problem we encountered was within the code, we struggled to get the robot to retrieve blocks as it wasn't sure where they were, however after seeing in our case study that they can use identifiers to see where there products are, we thought that using second intervals would be a great way to implement this concept of locational memory.
Me and my team member Chayce used verbal communication to develop, design and implement our ideas. We used programs such as team speak and Skype to do so. We also used a team forum to get our ideas across when the other member wasn't available at the time so when they were available they could catch up on the other members ideas.
for each challenge we started by creating a gantt chart to assist with scheduling each challenge and the overall project.
We planned when each member was available and used those time periods to work on the project.
We also had to plan the sequence in which we would undertake our project, we decided that the best way to do so was to take the project in order doing challenge 1 then 2 and finally 3 last. This worked well as our understanding from the previous challenge would transfer into the design and way we developed the next challenge.
Structured approach
Similar to the first challenge, we chose the structured approach for this challenge, as it suites the challenge best.
We need to undertake rigorous research and planning to successfully design and develop this automated warehouse.
Planning:
Planning for this challenge involved completely understanding what we had to do. To do this we conducted research on key industries such as the IKEA warehouse shown in my case study. This warehouse helped us to understand where to put the blocks and how to understand where to collect it from, in this warehouse they use locational memory and this is a key feature that we wanted to include in our design to successfully model the automated warehouse.
Designing:
Designing our automated warehouse was a challenge as we had to completely research what factors our case study used and how their robot worked, we saw that they used a rail system and we wanted to do this also as it was a simple way to keep the blocks being stored where they need to each time. We used Lego digital designer to model our automated warehouse and this was a huge help to plan and model our robot.
Implementation:
Implementing our design was simple with few errors encountered due to the use of the structured approach we had already eliminated most of the possible problems we could encounter. One problem we encountered was within the code, we struggled to get the robot to retrieve blocks as it wasn't sure where they were, however after seeing in our case study that they can use identifiers to see where there products are, we thought that using second intervals would be a great way to implement this concept of locational memory.
Project development report
- Preliminary research, Our preliminary research involved researching how automated manufacturing systems work and fully understanding what they do for the business and the people working there.
- Problem definition, Defining the problem was a key point for us in this assignment, To do this we carefully dissected the challenge criteria and gathered all relevant information from it.
- Requirements report, Our requirements report covered the needs of the end users/participants, the data inputs and outputs(IPO) and the scope of the project. We used our research to identify what we wanted in our final product and this was a key component of our requirements report.
- Project management plan. Our project management plan involved mainly scheduling as we had to find times when we were both available to complete the project.
- Possible solutions, We were presented with a few possible solutions for different points in this challenge, we had the choice of using 4 wheels or using our rail system.convoluted
- Feasibility study, Our feasibility report included, Economic, technical, scheduling and operation feasibility. Since this project did not require any money to create we could rule that out, the technical feasibility was very simple as the only program we could use to design our program was the mind storms app and we feel that our design would be operationally feasible, meeting the needs of the project that we identified in the scope.
- Analysis report. Our analysis report involved reporting on our scope and how well we met the scope, what we could improve and what we have done better then we intended on.
-Recommendation of solutions. Our recommended solutions involved a small list of possible designs that we could undertake to develop our robot. It not only involved the building of the robot but also the design and programming recommendations.
- Design specifications We decided that our robot had to meet certain needs. This was a good way to set our standards for coding, designing and implementing our design.
- Testing procedures To test our robot we used hands on methods such as seeing what the limits and problems were, we then documented these problems and accounted for them by solving the problem.
- Evaluation We designed our robot to be a model of an automated warehouse, we followed the example of our case study(IKEA warehouse). After evaluating our requirements report and comparing it to the end result we are pleased with the result and feel like we met the criteria whilst broadening our understanding of how automated warehouses work.
- Problem definition, Defining the problem was a key point for us in this assignment, To do this we carefully dissected the challenge criteria and gathered all relevant information from it.
- Requirements report, Our requirements report covered the needs of the end users/participants, the data inputs and outputs(IPO) and the scope of the project. We used our research to identify what we wanted in our final product and this was a key component of our requirements report.
- Project management plan. Our project management plan involved mainly scheduling as we had to find times when we were both available to complete the project.
- Possible solutions, We were presented with a few possible solutions for different points in this challenge, we had the choice of using 4 wheels or using our rail system.convoluted
- Feasibility study, Our feasibility report included, Economic, technical, scheduling and operation feasibility. Since this project did not require any money to create we could rule that out, the technical feasibility was very simple as the only program we could use to design our program was the mind storms app and we feel that our design would be operationally feasible, meeting the needs of the project that we identified in the scope.
- Analysis report. Our analysis report involved reporting on our scope and how well we met the scope, what we could improve and what we have done better then we intended on.
-Recommendation of solutions. Our recommended solutions involved a small list of possible designs that we could undertake to develop our robot. It not only involved the building of the robot but also the design and programming recommendations.
- Design specifications We decided that our robot had to meet certain needs. This was a good way to set our standards for coding, designing and implementing our design.
- Testing procedures To test our robot we used hands on methods such as seeing what the limits and problems were, we then documented these problems and accounted for them by solving the problem.
- Evaluation We designed our robot to be a model of an automated warehouse, we followed the example of our case study(IKEA warehouse). After evaluating our requirements report and comparing it to the end result we are pleased with the result and feel like we met the criteria whilst broadening our understanding of how automated warehouses work.