SBIR/STTR Award attributes
Across Air Force and Department of Defense logistics, thousands of hours of manpower are spent on manual kitting or repetitive packing for materials, tools, parts, equipment, packs, kits, boxes, etc. By automating these kitting and packing activities, Southie Autonomy’s dual armed mobile robot system will help offload man hours, reduce repetitive stress injuries, and increase efficiency rates. Southie Autonomy will be partnering with Oklahoma City-Air Logistics Complex, 76th Maintenance Support Group (MXSG) to automate the kitting materials, tools, and parts for toolboxes being built by the 76th MXSG Production & Material Support Branch. Kitting across Logistics Complex groups, MXSG, Aircraft Maintenance Group (AMXG), Propulsion Maintenance Group (PMXG), the Commodities Maintenance Group (CMXG) is currently being done manually by personnel today and takes hundreds of man hours to complete, which can be offloaded using robotic work cells. The mission impact of this project on the Air Force and the Department of Defense will be the path to adopting kitting automation that can be used across Air Force logistics, starting with 76th MXSG, then across the Tinker Air Logistics Complex groups, AMXG, PMXG, CMXG, and across the other depots, Warner Robins and Ogden. Adopting automation for kitting supports the Air Force Sustainment Center’s modernization efforts for 100% data integration and availability, 100% parts availability, efficient depots, effective workforce, 100% process control, and strategic sustainment management. Southie Autonomy is a Boston, Massachusetts robotics software company. They are breaking down the barriers for using robots today, making robot arms easy-to-use by anyone within minutes. With Southie Autonomy’s proprietary software, robot arms become flexible – one robot can now be easily repurposed for many different applications across a warehouse or logistics facility. They currently serve customers in commercial manufacturing deploying robotic arm systems to automate packing, kitting, and palletization.
