SBIR-STTR Award

Opportunities exist to use sensor-guided robotic manipulator systems on future surface combatants to automate the process of breaking-out palletized loads into individual packages and items, and to assemble mixed loads of such goods--to order--for delivery to end-users aboard ship. The system envisioned will be capable of handling provisions, consumables, spare parts and similar commodities originally delivered to the ship and stowed in storerooms on pallets or in containers. It will be designed such that the "hand-off" of packages from automation system to sailor assures crew safety and system reliability in high seas, and to be cost-effective. In Phase I, the preliminary design will be developed and its feasibility established through engineering and process analyses. In Phase II, an operational prototype of the bin-picking system will be built using commercial manipulators for laboratory tests and demonstrations, and designs for a shipboard model will be developed. In Phase III, a shipboard system will be built for tests on a Ship Motion Simulator and, ultimately, for sea trials. This automated bin-picking and package delivery system will be designed to be fully compatible with the NAVSTORS automated stowage and retrieval system and the Universal Loading Tray. - Reduced crew workload associated with shipboard palletized load break-out, package distribution and inventory control. - Enhanced crew safety during strike-down operations in high seas. - Robotic bin-picking systems for industrial applications.

Keywords:
Robot, Manipulator, Sensor-Guided, Logistics, Provisions, Storeroom, Inventory Control, Shipboard Automation

In its SBIR Phase I, Agile Systems Inc. developed concepts for new shipboard automated material handling technologies that address important opportunities to reduce crew size and generally increase logistics efficiency on Navy surface combatants—present and future—as well as on aircraft carriers and the CLF supply vessels that serve Carrier Battle Groups. NAVPAK is a system that automates the strikedown, stowage, selective retrieval and intraship distribution of package-size goods. Backfit to current DDG 51-class destroyers and CG 47-class cruisers, NAVPAK promises means to double the rate at which strikedown and stowage of provisions, spare parts and other consumables is performed, while reducing the manpower required up to 90%. In the proposed Phase II effort, an engineering prototype of the NAVPAK stowage and retrieval system will be designed, built, tested and demonstrated. This prototype will include the key enabling technologies of the NAVPAK AS/RS, including Mobile Package Carriers driven by an array of linear synchronous motors, a robotic load/unload device, vertical package conveyor mockup and real-time control system. In a Phase II Option, an improved robot will be added to the system and the prototype will be tested on NAVSEA Philadelphia’s Ship Motion Simulator under realistic dynamic loads.

Keywords:
AS/RS, SELECTIVE OFFLOAD, PACKAGE HANDLING, NAVSTORS, ROBOTICS, LOGISTICS, STRIKEDOWN, STRIKEUP