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Asset Inspection

Last updated on by adelyafatykhova

Warehouse automation is typically divided into physical and digital automation. Existing warehouse automation physical devices like Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) can automate movement of items. In the digital world, warehouse AI agents can create and manage transfer orders, but can't physically pick items.

Embodied AI agents for warehouse pick & place cases combine these approaches: AI agents with physical bodies are able to complete warehouse tasks end-to-end.

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Key Capabilities​

Embodied AI for asset inspections addresses the following challenges:

  1. Unplanned Downtime Costs: reactive maintenance leads to equipment failure and production losses
  2. Diagnostic Inaccuracy: technicians often arrive at assets without the context, leading to low fix rates
  3. Manual Inspection Risks: sending personnel into hazardous or remote areas for routine visual checks increases safety liability

Typical business benefits include:

  1. Accelerated Order Processing: handle high frequency warehouse tasks reducing processing time
  2. Increase Uptime: autonomous robots can operate on off-hours, night shifts maximizing warehouse throughput.
  3. Precise Inventory Control: robot led cycle counting increases stock accuracy.
  4. Operational Cost Reduction: fast exception handling minimize the impact of process and physical problems lowering overall operational cost.

Architecture​

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Solution Diagram Resources
You can download the Solution Diagram as a .drawio file for offline use. Alternatively, you may view and edit the Solution Diagram directly on draw.io.
Please note that any changes made online will need to be saved locally if you wish to keep them.
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Key Components​

Inspection "missions" for robots can come from multiple SAP applications. These include the following:

  1. SAP Asset Performance Management (APM)
  2. SAP Field Service Management (FSM)

Observations during the inspection and inspection results can also be stored accordingly in these applications, for human reference and for further use by other digital agents.

Note that it's not only about a source system for tasks - these applications also contain valuable context, guardrails, and other capabilities that can be applied during the inspection.

Embodied AI Agents​

Embodied AI agents for autonomous inspections have three main skills:

  1. Asset Localization: understanding which physical world assets correspond to which business objects
  2. Context-Aware Visual Inspection: this includes the navigation and perception skills required to compare observations against context data and expected status
  3. Anomaly Investigation and Reporting: when something unusual or unexpected occurs, the agent is able to conduct further investigation to capture more observations as needed, reporting the findings and notifying further systems, agents, and users

Examples in an SAP Context​

Resources​