Eventos Anais de eventos
COBEM 2021
26th International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
Computer vision based gates applied to controlling inbound and outbound flow of items to support warehouse management
Submission Author:
Claiton Mattos , PR
Co-Authors:
Claiton Mattos, Julia Bassetto Louzada, Rafael Martini Silva, Gabriel Maidl, Laércio de Jesus, Eduardo Yamao, Renato Penteado
Presenter: Claiton Mattos
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2021.COB2021-1874
Abstract
We are all living a time of quick changes and constant evolution, facing growing challenges and, not rarely, boosted by external contexts like the current pandemic. Companies have always needed to improve their processes, and now they must rise to the challenge of maximum productivity and efficiency. The bigger and more complex the operations of a company, the stronger its tendency to focusing on core business-related processes, in such a way that auxiliary processes are eventually neglected to some degree. Warehouse management and, more particularly, the control of items getting in and out of the stock is a process that may suffer the consequences of an ill-adjusted operation. This article presents the proposal of implementing instrumented gates in the main warehouse of an electric power company, aiming automated register of items through the stock, and also supplying data to support the inventory process. First, for the gates to fit the warehouse layout, some logistics aspects like the current product handling flow were evaluated and will be adjusted to the new process. The gates, one for inbound and one for outbound items, will be equipped with cameras to identify QR code tags and the general (visual) characteristics of the volumes that are moved into or out of the stock by forklifts. They will also have auxiliary conveyors to weigh smaller items which are either moved individually or in small packs. The images registered during the flow will be treated by different techniques fitting each step of the process. Image processing methods will be combined with computer vision techniques. Once integrated into the company's ERP, the system will provide continuous item flow monitoring, better stock register accuracy, improved productivity and reliability, leading to labor-related cost reduction and minimizing warehouse shutdown times for traditional periodic inventory processes.
Keywords
Computer Vision, Warehouse Management, Instrumented Gate, Inbound Flow, Outbound Flow
