360 degrees of innovation: how UTS Rapido is supporting breakthrough logistics technologies
A novel conveyor sortation system with potential to disrupt the global logistics sector is the end result of a research collaboration between UTS Rapido and Australian business OMNIA™ Wheel.
Since 2005, Australian omni wheel supplier OMNIA has been integrating their patented multi-directional wheel into a range of robotics, autonomous vehicle and assistive technology applications.
Ten years later, the team is on the cusp of transforming another thriving market: conveyor sortation systems, which are used to sort, direct and divert products on conveyer lines. Today, the Omni Directional Sortation System is in use in the USA and Europe — but bringing the idea to commercial life required specialist expertise.
With partial funding from the Australian Manufacturing Growth Centre, OMNIA approached UTS Rapido, a research and development engineering and technology consultancy based at UTS, for help.
We went to Rapido because we have limited resources and limited access to testing equipment and the high-level research we needed to do to understand the disruption potential of our wheel, says OMNIA Managing Director Peter McKinnon.
They were able to do a lot of testing for us, so we got a lot of data back that enabled us to start developing a conveyor table and understand how to simulate outcomes from different configurations.
Building the innovation foundations
The Rapido team built a computer-based model of the OMNIA wheel-powered conveyor system and modelled the different points at which packages came into contact with the wheels. They also conducted a series of tests to measure roller friction, traction and compression, seeking to understand how a package would move based on its weight and materials, as well as on a variety of wheel orientations and speeds.
Next, they built a prototype sortation table comprised of 115 OMNIA wheels and repeated the tests using more than 20 different scenarios to verify the outcomes of their computer-based modelling. The findings gave OMNIA a clear understanding of how their wheels behaved in a conveyor sortation system and a modelling platform that they could use to create their own commercial product.
We had a much better understanding of the physical dynamics around what happens when we drive wheels in different directions and what we can achieve, McKinnon says.
It helped us to have a much more in-depth knowledge of the product, the capability and how to use that information to take it towards the marketplace.
Where disruption happens
The testing paved the way to the development of OMNIA’s Omni Directional Sortation System, a sortation table that can be used as an independent cell or integrated into complex, networked conveyor systems. Unlike standard sortation systems, which often use roller belts, swivels or pneumatic components, the OMNIA system is based on two different sizes of omni wheels arranged at 90 degrees to one another. It can be used as an independent unit for multidirectional diversion and sortation or combined with other units to complete complex tasks such as RFID scanning, printing and labelling.
One of the beauties of this system is that it can do all of those things purely through programming. So you can use one unit to do some fairly basic diversion at variable angles and speeds, or you can combine units to do more complex manipulations depending on your needs.It’s much simpler, which means less maintenance, less initial capital cost and less wear on the whole system, McKinnon says.
The simplicity of the design, coupled with limited points of friction and the OMNIA wheel’s hardwearing polymer fabrication, means increased reliability and reduced potential for breakdowns — crucial considerations in an industry where time is money. It also uses less energy than traditional conveyor sortation systems. A new model currently in development will be able to handle smaller packages sizes, down to 100mm by 100mm, in response to growing e-commerce demand. This capability will be a rarity among existing conveyor sortation systems.
Home-grown technology, global impact
The OMNIA team exhibited a demo version of the sortation system at a range of international trade shows, including MODEX 2020. The product was a hit among international logistics companies — currently, it’s in use in the USA, Greece and Poland, including in a major European postal service. It’s also being trialled by major retail, engineering and technology companies seeking new innovations for their warehousing and e-commerce activities.
It has also resulted in the creation of two new jobs, with significant potential for additional fabrication and assembly roles over the next few years as OMNIA’s share of the conveyer sortation market grows. The Omni Directional Sortation System is just one example of how UTS Rapido is helping Australian SMEs transform their ground-breaking ideas into tangible commercial products, says Herve Harvard, Founding Director of UTS Rapido:
Our partnership with OMNIA demonstrates UTS Rapido’s capacity to support our partners’ R&D and innovation strategies. With OMNIA, we delivered computer modelling, prototype development and simulation testing that helped them bring new products to market.
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