The two-year-old child of an Outrider engineer was able to dispatch an autonomous electric truck with the click of one button. That truck, enabled with an AI-driven robotic arm that connects to the air lines of a trailer to release parking brakes, then maneuvers a 53-foot trailer throughout traffic in the yard to park it with centimeter accuracy at a loading dock.
Outrider Founder and CEO Andrew Smith said this automation creates significant efficiencies in the yard, which is a critical link in the supply chain that has a substantial impact on the warehouse and the transportation network as a whole. To create further efficiencies, Outrider recently rolled out another automated feature; its new automated trailer inventory tracking capabilities uses technology already onboard those trucks to collect locations of parked trailers during routine operations or as a dedicated function to enhance visibility into yard operations.
Smith said although many yards continue to use antiquated systems like spreadsheets to conduct operations, adoption of new technologies has accelerated even in the past 24 months. Companies like Outrider and Manhattan Associates are using cloud-based API architecture to automate yard processes to reduce pain points of yard operations and get drivers back on the road quickly.
Antiquated systems have yard personnel manually update trailer locations on foot or by driving through the yard – an error-prone, tedious process to gather information that quickly becomes outdated due to that method.
[Related: Yards shift closer to autonomy with outdoor wireless systems]
Smith said Outrider’s new technology will save time and money for truck drivers, who waste hours each week looking for trailers, which are easily lost in yards as a result of moving many times for unloading, cleaning, loading, staging and storing, causing shipping delays. The tracking technology uses sensors and proprietary computer vision algorithms enabled by deep learning to detect vacant or occupied parking spots, capture trailer identification numbers and standard carrier alpha codes, as well as multiple other trailer characteristics.
