Coca-Cola Factory in Henan Adopts Intelligent Sorting Robots
Zhengzhou (ANTARA) - Recently, six intelligent sorting robots officially began operations on the production line at the Swire Coca-Cola Beverages Zhengzhou Co., Ltd. factory in Zhengzhou, the capital of China’s Henan Province.
The robots are divided into three batches, each equipped with supporting devices including Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs).
The deployment of these robots in real-world scenarios marks a new breakthrough for embodied artificial intelligence technology in China for commercial applications within the global fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) warehouse logistics business.
For a long time, beverage storage and logistics have faced various global technical challenges. Most mainstream beverage products use plastic film packaging, which lacks the sturdy support and flat surfaces of cardboard, making them prone to deformation under pressure.
The reflective, wrinkled, and low-texture transparent film surfaces also significantly complicate robotic vision systems in performing accurate and stable product positioning and gripping. When packaging is damaged or deformed, conventional automated equipment often fails to identify the issue and must halt operations to await manual intervention.
To overcome these constraints, Swire Coca-Cola Beverages Zhengzhou Co., Ltd. collaborated with Hangzhou SETH Robotics Technology Co., Ltd. to design and produce an intelligent sorting robot named “SAI”.
Equipped with an AI “brain”, this robot can simulate operational processes, tracking, movement, picking, and stacking within a virtual warehouse. Once the process is proven effective and viable, action commands are sent to the physical machines, allowing debugging and repairs to be conducted earlier.
Meanwhile, data from real operations is fed back into the training and simulation models to create an integrated data mechanism covering training, real-world tasks, data feedback, and model iteration. This reduces the system’s reliance on time-consuming manual adjustments and separate recoding for every scenario.
“This robot can handle heavy and repetitive goods transport tasks, thereby saving human labour costs and reducing risks in jobs involving both humans and machines,” said Jin Yichao, Chief Technology Officer of Hangzhou SETH Robotics Technology Co., Ltd.
According to Peter Mills, Chief Supply Chain Officer at Swire Coca-Cola Beverages, this smart manufacturing model is expected to become more mature and replicable, allowing for implementation in various other factories across China and even globally.
Jin stated that the robot is equipped with an operational platform capable of sorting, transporting, and delivering cargo weighing 40 kilograms in each full-capacity cycle, with a capacity of up to 600 crates per hour and near 100 per cent accuracy.
Jin added that his company will push the application of this model to various other scenarios, such as sorting alcoholic and dairy products, transporting goods via trucks and trains, and handling luggage at airports, among others.