Last week, the first SIR (Smart Item Robotics) application has been launched in Finland at Würth Oy, the leading Finnish trading company in assembly and fastening materials. Smart Item Robotics is a Vanderlande product, developed in cooperation with Smart Robotics. A team of Vanderlande and Smart Robotics employees went to Finland to roll out the solution in Würth’s logistics center in Riihimäki, a town north of Helsinki.

At Würth Oy, they have renamed SIR into ‘Siiri’, which roughly translates to a junior picker who is learning and developing on the job. As Würth’s Logistics Manager Terhi Vesala says: « SIR is now entering school, where it will develop greatly. We are striving for total efficiency in human and cobot cooperation, so that the strengths of each can be optimized ». Vanderlande will proactively monitor the situation in Finland, and work closely with Würth to optimize SIR’s capabilities. Logistics Manager Terhi Vesala: « In other words, we are experiencing what this robot is truly capable of. »

SIR is a unique application, able to cooperate with a human operator and to pick and place individual items in a smart and flexible way. SIR can handle dynamic product ranges without teach-in. Because of the Smart Software and feedback from 3D-vision the robot is able to take the product dimensions into account, allowing for intelligent stacking and positioning of goods. This way, SIR addresses a key challenge in the market: a lack of an available and skilled workforce.

The integration of ‘Siiri’ at Würth Oy is a great step in the development of Smart Item Robotics. We look forward to the future of SIR.

Source: ‘Vanderlande brings item picking cobot technology to life’ – Vanderlande. 

Youtube Video SIR at Würth Oy Finland