DHL unveils robotic tech as part of Chicago innovation center launch [VIDEO]

Today marked the grand opening of DHL’s 28,000-square-foot Americas innovation center in Rosemont, Ill., near Chicago. The center will benefit from its proximity to American technology start-up regions, such as Silicon Valley.

The Americas center is the third in DHL’s portfolio after the initial center in Cologne, Germany, and the Asia-Pacific center in Singapore. Chicago was selected as the center’s site due to its easy connectivity for passenger and cargo operations at O’Hare International Airport (ORD) and because four of five divisions under parent organization Deutsche Post DHL Group – DHL Global Forwarding, DHL Express, DHL Supply Chain and DHL eCommerce Solutions – have facilities in the Chicago area.

DHL’s innovation center aims to demonstrate DHL’s vision of the future of logistics and commerce, technology trends entering the logistics space and current solutions the group offers customers. During a media tour of the center, DHL showcased wearable technology and robotics already in use in its supply chain and global forwarding operations, including smart glasses used for warehouse picking and a virtual reality (VR) training tool. Other technologies on display are still in the early stages of implementation, including a robotic picking machine (featured in the video below) that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to correctly pick and sort items it previously may have never encountered.

For more on the application of wearable technology in logistics, see our September feature on “Cargo Couture” in the digital issue of Air Cargo World.