Warehouse scanning becomes airborne

A South African
start-up – that
has developed an
airborne scanner
– is taking the lead when it
comes to revolutionising the
warehousing industry.
According to Jasper Pons,
founder of DroneScan,
they are currently piloting
the device with a major
European company.
“DroneScan takes the
function of a handheld
scanner used in warehouse
operations to check
inventory and simply makes
it airborne,” he said. “It
packages the ability to
scan in the air on a drone
and send the information
back to a base station for
integration with warehouse
systems.”
With the pilot project
nearly 70% complete, the
forecast for DroneScan is
extremely positive.
“We believe it will be
part of normal operations
in large warehouses in five
years. It will be a tool of
the trade, like forklifts and
scissor cages are today,”
said Pons.
The system sees a
barcode scanner attached to
the DJI Matrice 100 drone.
“We have selected this
platform due to its indoor
stability and guidance
package, an array of sensors
and cameras that allow us
to manage indoor stability
and navigation,” explained
Pons. It's more than just
a scanner; we incorporate
our own distance and
movement sensors and
a internal map of the
warehouse dimensions
to offer a scan that tells
warehouse operations what
location or rack we have
scanned and can compare
in real time if the expected
pallet is in its place or not.”
The benefits, he said, at
a simplistic level could be
boiled down to speed.
“We say we are 100 times
faster than the normal
methods. Any innovation
that is 10 times better than
its incumbent is normally a
breakthrough.”
There are huge savings
to be made using drones
in warehouses to scan
inventory. Time is not the
only saving – the ultimate
benefit will be in the lower
cost of operations.
With the first pilot
nearing completion, Pons
hopes to see more pilots
and trials take place in
2017 before launching
commercially in early 2018.
But there is still a lot of
work to be done.
“Like any start-up and
with new concepts it’s
a lot to disrupt a very
traditional operational
area with a radical new
technology,” said Pons. “So
there are multiple areas
that have challenges – from
customer perceptions
of where you are, to the
reality of bringing a new
product to the market while
innovating and developing
it as you go.”
Excitement over the
development is, however,
growing fast and rapid
advancements are being
made through the initial
customer pilot.
“Being small and agile
we are able to make the
changes to hardware,
software and operations
inside our running projects
and fine-tune the output,”
said Pons.
INSERT
It packages the ability
to scan in the air on
a drone and send
the information back
to a base station
for integration with
warehouse systems.
– Jasper Pons
CAPTION
Jasper Pons with the DroneScan ... more than just a scanner.