Autonomous Drones for Inventory Management

FlytWare is a solution for drones in the supply chain–specifically digital inventory management in warehouses. High-value activities such as inventory search, counting, reconciliation, and audits can now be fully automated using drones.

Without relying on skilled human pilots, FlytWare drones can take-off from their home locations, navigate in and around narrow aisles, and land precisely where required. This is possible despite the lack of GPS inside the warehouse. FlytWare uses advanced robotics, automation, and computer vision techniques and to make such indoor autonomous navigation possible, reliable, and repeatable.

With only an Ethernet and a power connection, the FlytWare ground station(s) can be made operational—with the ability to remotely manage a fleet of drones flying indoors. A trained operator can plan, execute and monitor inventory count missions, watch live video feeds, ensure safe operations, and step through location-wise barcode and image data, as need be.

FlytWare offers both manual and autonomous options for (re)charging drone batteries. The best option depends on your warehouse layout, target cycle count frequency, size of rack storage areas, and other inventory metrics that you wish to target. With precision landing built-in and mission plannings, FlytWare drones land themselves on charging pads, charge themselves, and take off for the next count.

Besides location-wise data for bin labels and pallet/case barcodes, FlytWare ensures that multiple images are captured and archived for each location. This data can then be used by warehouse stakeholders manually (for audits, second counts, etc.)—as well as by algorithms for object recognition, empty/full slot detection, etc.

CSV-based data exports and imports may be good to start with, but FlytWare can also push inventory data automatically into your warehouse management system using its APIs. Working with your internal IT and WMS support teams, data collected during drone inventory scans can be displayed and archived on the premise, in the cloud, or on backup storage. This is invaluable for internal and external inventory reconciliation by independent auditors, 3PL customers, and corporate stakeholders, etc.