CASE 2016

Warehouse robotic automation is attracting increasing interest. Robotics shows potential to impact logistics and efficient distribution of products. Prior successful commercial ventures, such as Kiva Systems, which was acquired and adopted by Amazon, have shown how the industrial landscape can quickly change through the adoption of emergent automation technology. An example task in this domain, which requires further development for successful adoption by industry, corresponds to picking and placing items from storage units, including shelves, bins, and boxes. This task is the focus of a robotics competition, the Amazon Picking Challenge (APC), which brings together multiple academic and industrial teams from around the world.

The goal of this workshop is to bring together existing technologies and current needs for picking and transportation in warehouse automation. We provide industrial representatives the opportunity to describe their needs, and academic representatives to describe tools and capabilities that they can provide. More importantly, this workshop is an opportunity to get to know people interested in the are and foster collaboration to improve the state­-of-­the-­art in warehouse automation. We also give an opportunity to Amazon and Amazon Picking Challenge teams to describe learned lessons. We do this through a series of talks both from industrial and academic speakers, and a panel discussion to encourage interaction and discussion among participants.

Materials of the Workshop on Automation for Warehouse Logistics that was held at the IEEE Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE 2016) have been posted! 

There you will find videos of talks (both academic and industry), panel discussions, and summary videos from teams participating in the 2016 Amazon Picking Challenge.

For complete details and video recordings see: https://awl2016.mit.edu/