As the number of online purchases and e-commerce options continues to grow, the increased need for optimized infrastructure translates beyond the digital frontier and into the physical realm. Businesses now require extensive amounts of warehouse space to store goods, and consumer expectations for faster delivery times have put pressure on companies to maintain large inventories close to populated areas.
After recognizing a need for more streamlined, sophisticated distribution networks, one of KCI’s clients opted to incorporate robotic equipment into their facility. To successfully outfit their warehouse for robots, they needed to make sure their facility’s concrete floors would meet the robotic system’s exacting flatness and levelness requirements.
Challenge: Optimizing Floor Flatness Testing for Robotic Facilities
KCI surveyors were contracted to assess the current condition of the facility’s floors and provide comprehensive reports that specified where adjustments were needed so that remediation could occur before operations began. However, traditional methods of concrete floor testing posed a variety of challenges.
In the past, our surveyors relied on testing tools that were run locally on their computers, straining system resources and requiring expensive, high-end CPUs and large amounts of RAM. Since most solutions generate only basic reports without sufficient detail or visual aids to pinpoint the exact location of issues on the floor, our team had to develop and maintain custom scripts to deliver the high- value results needed to keep the project on schedule.
Our team set up survey points across the warehouse floors and captured the areas with a rolling tripod scanner, creating detailed point cloud files. Once the initial survey was completed, that scanned data was easily uploaded into RoboFlat™, KCI’s advanced cloud solution for floor flatness testing.
“Rather than relying on continually upgrading our computer hardware to handle large files, processing point cloud scans is much more efficient if done on a cloud-based system. RoboFlat streamlined the testing process and verified the state of our client’s warehouse floors.” – Matthew Lenz, KCI Survey Designer
With RoboFlat’s support for a variety of floor standards, KCI surveyors easily configured the test to check for the robotic system’s custom floor standard, specifying granular detail about the level of tolerance for flatness and levelness needed. Once processing began, RoboFlat automatically tested for deviations across the entire floor, using machine learning algorithms on the raw data via geometric features and the specified parameters.
The final output consisted of dynamic CAD files that pinpointed the issues found throughout the warehouse floors. With comprehensive reports in hand, our client passed the results on to a concrete remediation company to address flatness issues by grinding down the concrete floor and creating a level foundation.
Through our 3D laser scanning services and the use of RoboFlat, KCI successfully identified floor flatness issues in the client’s warehouse environment. By providing precise, real-time data, this solution delivered a variety of benefits to our client. Leveraging RoboFlat’s cloud computing, KCI surveyors were able to streamline the testing process and quickly provide the client with detailed floor flatness and levelness information for the entire warehouse floor. Additionally, RoboFlat’s automated power freed up resources and optimized our staff’s efficiencies while reducing overall costs.
Discover how KCI leveraged the power of 3D laser scanning with RoboFlat to deliver valued services for a client’s warehouse project, providing timely, cost-effective, and detailed results.