Nulogy and Southie Autonomy deliver AI-driven co-packing robots amid human labor shortages

05 Nov 2021 --- Canadian supply chain solution specialist Nulogy is entering a partnership with US-based AI automation company Southie Autonomy to develop robotics as a solution to human labor shortages.

The duo says their collaboration will aid co-packaging and manufacturing operations with “cutting edge” technology like Southie Automony’s robot arm, an artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) driven platform capable of automating various contract packing activities. These activities include pack assembly, kitting, and palletization, and enabling daily line changeovers.

Speaking to PackagingInsights, Nulogy’s CEO Jason Tham explains the robot arm will give the company the ability to ease the interaction between human and robotic labor. 

“Southie Autonomy provides an application making it easy for line workers to interact with and work alongside its robot arm cells. Using AI to shape the behavior of the robot arm, and AR to enable gesture commands, a worker with no complex coding or programming experience can have a robot arm up and running in less than ten minutes.”

Overcoming COVID-19 labor shortages 
Tham explains the partnership results from both companies’ aspirations to realize the potential of new machine technology in the packaging industry and a labor supply shortage created by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Converging human and machine power is boosting industry efficiency, says Nulogy.“The partnership with Nulogy and Southie Autonomy came about from a shared long-term vision of how supply chain operations can benefit from the practical implementation of the rapidly evolving technology available to us today, and a near-term pragmatic goal of tackling the labor challenges affecting the industry.”

Even as lockdown restrictions begin to subside, reliance on traditional supply methods is no longer an option, he asserts, and industry must begin integrating modern technology.

“The industry is changing and being disrupted at an increasingly frequent rate, and as we’ve seen over the past 18 months, the status quo of relying on analog supply chain management methods has become woefully inadequate.” 

“Modern challenges require modern solutions,” he says. 

Boosting efficiency with tech 
AI- and AR-driven solutions can improve speed and efficiency rates for companies, says Tham, thereby improving energy output and environmental footprint. The partners’ robotic operations can be configured within minutes, requiring no coding or engineering experience to operate. 

“Southie’s robot arm solution can easily keep up with packaging changes or short-run orders, therefore reducing time to market. It can also be repurposed for many tasks, eliminating valuable hardware waste and maximizing return on the system,” continues Tham. 

“Nulogy’s platform automates the data flow of a co-packing shop floor, which in turn reduces manual errors and gives the front office real-time visibility into inventory and materials consumption.” 

He outlinest co-packers can maximize production accuracy and reduce inventory waste by being more efficient with production and order management. The company claims to be the only purpose-built multi-enterprise platform for co-packing and contract manufacturer networks.

Currently, the platform is used on hundreds of contract supplier sites globally. Replacing human labor lost to the COVID-19 pandemic has driven interest in automated solutions.

AI enters the system 
The Nulogy and Southie Autonomy partnership joins a tide of industry innovation as packaging businesses rush to future-proof their operations and lower costs through automated technology. 

Recently, Syntegon began investing in AI solutions like the Sigpack TTMD, a packaging machine with a camera-based vision control system that detects products on its in-feed belt. The company has highlighted the importance of automation during COVID-19 for labor shortages and accuracy in pharmaceutical packaging. 

Syntegon indicates AI applications can help increase detection rates and decrease false rejects in difficult products, like highly viscous parenteral solutions with air bubbles, which are sometimes hard to differentiate from harmful particles. 

Meanwhile, Schubert has enhanced the speed of its lightweight product packing with the launch of an AI-programmed pick-and-place cobot called tog.519. 

Programmed for “gripping from disorder,” the cobot is designed for packing lightweight products in the F&B, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries, and operates up to eight times faster than standard cobots. 

By Louis Gore-Langton