As warehousing becomes more fully robotic, with robotic forklifts, automated conveyor systems and RFID tracking technologies, there will be no more need for human warehouse workers. In fact the first completely robotic warehouse used in the automotive manufacturing industry in Japan seem to be working better than expected and there is quite a bit of savings going on. Think of it, no pension contribution, vacation pay, human resources departments and no 401Ks, no employee lawsuits, no lackadaisical workers, no sexual harassment suits; it’s perfect. Any business, which can cut payroll, which is usually one of the top major costs in any company or corporation is bucks ahead.

Since these robotic systems will be doing ALL the warehousing in the future, we can lay off all the people. Once we do that we can save a ton of money and in doing so there is not need for the expensive costs and high-energy requirements of industrial lighting. As a matter of fact these robotic systems are happy to work in the dark all the time. Of course there will be a need for human to monitor the facility, well until which time we can train an artificial intelligent system to do it. The human will want some amount of lighting.

I therefore propose to use the rumbling of robotic machinery and conveyor belts to power up LED lighting systems throughout the building without the use of or need for energy from the main power. The vibrational energy from moving machinery and robotic conveyor systems can power up these lights using electromagnetic induction technology to charge a capacitor instead of the headlights working off main power.

Currently there are some nifty micro-flashlights being used, which you can buy which use a similar technique and are available thanks to the Everlite Flashlight technology research lab. These smaller flashlights work by shaking them for about thirty seconds and shine for about 6 minutes and they shine quite bright since they use a very bright LED light. Here is a link to this home use flashlight:

http://www.yet2.com/app/insight/techofweek/319?sid=350

http://www.modernoutpost.com/gear/details/ee_shakelight.html

If the lights get too dim from lack of activity and a human needs to inspect the facility or the power goes off due to outage and the robotic machinery stops, then the LED lighting system would revert back to the back-up power until everything is fully operational again. If we are talking about a 1-million square foot facility, the savings of lighting could be in excess of $50,000 per year or more, even with the most efficient of lighting systems. Perhaps this is a good way to save money and energy in robotic warehouses? Think on this.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

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