The logistics service provider Active Ants, specialized in e-fulfillment, relies on robotics solutions from the Stuttgart-based provider Sereact for its picking processes: The pioneer in the field of Embodied AI for robotics equips the Active Ants location in Dorsten, North Rhine-Westphalia, as well as subsequently all other international locations of the company in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and England with robots. This is reported by a press release from August 4, which LOGISTIK HEUTE has exclusively received in advance.
According to this, Active Ants currently carries out e-fulfillment services including value-added services such as packaging and individually printed cartons for 45 companies at the logistics center in Dorsten. The service provider's target groups include small to medium-sized online sellers from a variety of industries such as cosmetics, healthcare, dietary supplements, small electronics like toys and mobile phones, as well as fashion, focusing on the functional clothing segment.
“With the great variety of products and industries we handle at the Dorsten
site, we needed an innovative solution for our picking processes to be able to supply our customers more efficiently, quickly, and reliably in the future. The current developments in artificial intelligence have created the conditions for this. We chose the AI-based robotics solution from Sereact, which convinced us in a multi-month trial. The system sets new standards in the field of automation with its disruptive approach and fits perfectly with our needs and requirements,” explains Jeroen Duijts, Managing Director at Active Ants Germany.
Less training time needed
According to the company, Sereact's robotics system is based on AI, which, unlike competing systems, does not rely on article master data but perceives objects with diverse structures and shapes through the use of cameras & vision systems and autonomously defines the respective optimal movements of the robotic arm within the framework of "zero-shot reasoning." This means the system requires less training time for recognizing and processing objects, ensuring more efficiency and time
savings in picking processes, it is said. A test run of the system involving Active Ants' Operational Excellence team has been underway since the beginning of the year at the Dorsten site and was successful. The system has been fully integrated into regular operations since July.
“The demands on modern applications in the warehouse are increasing. This is partly due to increasing stock keeping units, higher variability of stored products, and constantly changing flows of goods. For successful automation of intralogistics processes, solutions that take other paths than previously proven technologies are needed more often. With the extended use of AI in combination with the use of visual data and autonomous decisions by robots, we have created an application that addresses this exactly. We are proud to have convinced Active Ants of the capabilities of AI-based robotics and look forward to further collaboration,” explains Ralf Gulde, CEO & Co-Founder at Sereact.
Since its founding in 2010, Active Ants has specialized
in e-commerce logistics and handles a range of services around inventory management, shipping, and returns processing, with added value services. Currently, according to the company, Active Ants has four locations in Europe and employs around 450 people. The shipping volume amounts to more than seven million shipments annually. Since 2018, it has been part of Belgian Post.
“Due to our focus on the dynamically developing online trade, Active Ants has always been open to innovation and the willingness to use modern technical solutions since its founding. This includes the company's own development of a warehouse management system and a movable conveyor belt, but also external solutions, for example in the form of AutoStores as well as automation and robotics systems around packaging and picking processes. In this, automation is not an end in itself, but is designed to benefit both our customers and our employees equally, by facilitating and even relieving them of monotonous and repetitive tasks,” explains Jeroen Duijts.
