Earlier today, Danish transport and logistics company DSV, in a collaboration with tech innovator Verity, showed off an autonomous drone system that can be deployed in its warehouses to help manage inventory.
As the video above explains, the autonomous drones will be used to scan inventory and will mainly operate at night when staff are not present.
According to DSV, the drones will mean staff need no longer conduct „unsafe and arduous” manual counts that often result in discrepancies.
Verity and DSV say they have tested the system at the Moerdijk warehouse in the Netherlands, where drones completed thousands of flights and tens of thousands of scans. The drones can scan barcodes without human interaction and detect if pallet positions are empty or occupied.
Luca Graf, Senior Director of Innovation at DSV, claims the drones know where goods are located „down to each centimetre”:
“The drones know down to each centimetre where goods are located, and the information they provide with their scans can be compared with information in our system. This helps us to increase the predictability and visibility of inventory.”
DSV will now roll-out the drone system into more of its warehouses after declaring the pilot scheme a success.