Purdue builds on-campus smart factory with Addverb robots and software

The India-based logistics automation startup Addverb Technologies today said it has launched a smart factory project through a collaboration with Purdue University’s School of Engineering Technology.

Addverb and Indiana-based Purdue said the project will enable Manufacturing Engineering Technology (MFET) undergraduate students and faculty to interact with real-world applications of modern industrial automation in supply chain management and warehouse design.

Addverb said the on-campus smart factory will help students better understand how flexible automation works in various industry settings, and can scale to meet the needs of a specific factory or warehouse without significant infrastructural changes.

Students using the new facility with be able to use Addverb’s Dynamo, an autonomous mobile robot (AMR) that navigates its environment with sensors for material movement, performing functions like picking, tunneling, and tugging. The factory will also feature Veloce, a multi-carton picking mobile robot that can enable multi-level storage and retrieval of cases and cartons. Students can also interact with two software programs—Movect, Addverb’s Fleet Management System (FMS) and Concinity, Addverb’s Warehouse Execution System (WES)—to learn fleet management, task allocation, inventory control, resource management, and outbound logistics.