Manufacturing Journalist TR Cutler Looks at Food Safety and Seegrid Vision-Guided Pallet Trucks for IFSQN

Pittsburgh, PA -- (SBWire) -- 11/09/2011 --With labor comprising over 75% of all warehouse costs, the unique value proposition for implementing Seegrid’s vision-guided technology is substantially less, than the cost of paying a pallet truck operator, over-time. Specifically, food distribution and manufacturing facilities experience these savings:

• The need for manned travel
• Dock-to-stock cycle time
• Per shift labor costs
• Reliance on seasonal and temporary workers

Founded in 2003, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Seegrid Corp. brings robotic vision-guided technology to the material handling within the food manufacturing and food distribution industry. With more than thirty years of innovation and research by the leading robotic scientists, engineers, programmers and logistics practitioners worldwide. Seegrid’s technology transforms industrial vehicles into un-manned, automated pallet trucks and tow tractors that operate without the need for wire, tape, laser or other costly automated guided vehicle (AGV) guidance systems. Seegrid CEO, Dr. Scott Friedman, recently discussed the burgeoning importance of warehouse robots, why voice-activated industrial robots will not appear, and the coming era of "twilight" factories and warehouses dominated by robots.

Friedman recently shared how the vision system works, “The vision system works by creating a 3-D grid, actually an Occupancy Grid, which is a machine vision technique invented by Seegrid’s co-founder, Hans Moravec. That is why our company is named Seegrid. It is a pun on "see the grid". The system lets the robot know where it is located on the grid, localization. It is not designed for object recognition, but can customize the unit and add that capability if customers desired it.”

The result has been food and beverage firms of all sizes now optimize workflow processes by increasing productivity, reducing costs, and creating economic and operational advantages.

In 2011, Seegrid entered into partnerships with Raymond Corporation and Linde Material Handling, the two leading industrial truck manufacturers. Seegrid’s leadership role is expanding with the best-in-class series of Robotic Industrial Trucks, including the GP8 Pallet Truck, GP8 Towing Attachment, GT3 and GT10 Tow Tractor.

Automated guided vehicles (AGV) currently require significant and costly facility overhaul. Seegrid trucks do not require cables, tracks, lasers, magnetic tape or wires; deployed immediately, without changing the existing facility design, maintenance routines, or mechanical components, this ready-to-implement procedure is a central distinction in the robotic industrial truck value proposition.

Vision-Guided Pallet Trucks change the automation paradigm according to manufacturing journalist Thomas R. Cutler in the in current issue of IFSQN, the International Food Safety Quality Network. Cutler profiles how Seegrid is taking a unique role in these technologies.

Seegrid is now poised as a leader in the $38 billion forklift market.