At CeMAT 2023 in Sydney, Falcon Autotech, a forerunner in intralogistics automation solutions, unveiled its cutting-edge product, NEO – a new take on ASRS systems. MHD spoke with Falcon Autotech’s CEO Naman Jain to learn more.
Dubbed an ‘An ASRS that everyone can own’, Falcon Autotech’s NEO promises to reshape how businesses view efficiency, productivity, and inventory management.
“NEO is more than just a ‘goods to person’ system – it’s a new era of three-dimensional robots,” Naman Jain, CEO of Falcon Autotech, told MHD at CeMAT 2023.
Unlike traditional ASRS systems constrained to X and Y axes, Naman highlighted NEO’s unprecedented ability to “move on the ground and climb racks without the need for lifts or conveyor systems, reaching heights up to 40 feet.” This breakthrough design enables businesses to maximise vertical space, access any SKU within storage using a single robot, and approach any ‘goods to person’ station seamlessly.
The NEO system, leveraging state-of-the-art robotics, artificial intelligence, and advanced sensors, offers a quintet of pioneering components – NEObots, NEOgrid, NEObins, NEOit, and NEOstations. With its unique 3D movement feature, these robots navigate in the X, Y, and Z dimensions effortlessly, rendering traditional lifts and conveyor systems obsolete. Not just that, NEO is designed to evolve as your business scales. “Based on the requirement, companies can add more robots or bins to cater to growing demands,” Naman said.
As industries become more dynamic, the demand for modular and adaptable systems has risen.
“We cater to clients with minimal requirements, like 500 bin positions and just a handful of robots, and to large corporations needing 40,000 bins with hundreds of robots.”
He further emphasised the system’s modularity, stressing that clients can effortlessly “add more storage aisles or robots as needed” and even reposition bots depending on the demand.
On the technology’s uniqueness, Naman added, “To our knowledge, only four companies, including us, possess this technology.” Even so, Falcon Autotech developed the tech for NEO from scratch and owns the patents.
A significant highlight of the NEO system is NEO IT, its underlying intelligence. “NEO IT is the brain behind the entire technology,” Naman said. It groups orders with similar SKUs, constantly analyses order profiles, and intelligently positions fast-moving products closer to the ‘goods to person’ stations.
Regarding NEO’s reception at CeMAT and in the Australian market, Naman observed two visitor types. Those acquainted with the tech appreciated the “flexibility and modularity NEO offers.” Meanwhile, ASRS newcomers grasped NEO’s transformative potential, especially its ability to catapult picking rates to nearly 600 items per hour per person.
Before wrapping up our chat, Naman underscored his commitment to the Australian market. “We’ve established our subsidiary here and have begun hiring.” He revealed their first project is set to go live in Sydney by late August or early September, heralding Falcon Autotech’s robust Australian debut.
Additionally, they’ve joined forces with Alstef for parcel sortation, solidifying their position as a dynamic logistics solution provider.
“We offer two main product categories: order fulfillment, for which NEO is a solution, and parcel sortation, for which we have multiple sortation technologies to offer. Falcon Autotech has officially launched in Australia. And we’re very excited by the response we’ve had to NEO so far.”
For more on Falcon Autotech, click here.