Kiva Robot and System Study

Abstract

This study discusses about Robotic Mobile Fulfillment Systems, especially Kiva robot, and analyzes their performance. A Robotic Mobile Fulfillment System is an automated, parts-to-picker storage system where robots bring pods with products to a workstation. It is especially suited for e-commerce distribution centers with large assortments of small products, and with strong demand fluctuations. Such a system stores goods in movable shelves and uses movable robots to transport the shelves. The robot is battery powered and the battery depletes during operations, which can seriously affect the performance of the system. To perform all the advantage provided, company should be able to optimize the use of RMFS. Evaluating the position of the workstation and evaluating the battery management is one of the way. For evaluating workstation this study discusses four different models to be tested and include the role of nonzoning and zoning area. As for evaluating battery management, we build a network consist of three methods of charging : plug-in, inductive charging, and swapping battery; and solve it using Semi Open Queueing Network (SOQN). The result show that the maximum throughput is insensitive to the length-to-width ratio of the storage area and location of workstation is the warehouse matters. Also, the depleted battery made a significant change to the entire system in warehouse.