Everyone also has a deep understanding of the corresponding speed and service improvement of e-commerce logistics distribution. In the view of many e-commerce platforms, with the increasingly obvious trend of commodity homogeneity, it has become a consensus to further establish barriers to competition through logistics service improvement. Both JD Logistics and Cainiao Network have become one of the most important service systems of JD and Alibaba. How to make logistics more "intelligent" has become the key to competition among major logistics platforms.
UAV distribution will enter normal operation
On June 8th last year, JD drones completed their first rural delivery in Caoji Township, Suqian, Jiangsu Province. Since this year, JD's strategic planning for drones has become increasingly clear. It has formulated a three-level navigable drone logistics network layout including trunk lines, branch lines, and terminal distribution, and completed the implementation of a series of supporting technologies and facilities such as drone flight control and scheduling centers, flight service centers, research and development centers, and manufacturing centers, greatly promoting the development process of JD's drone industry. In June of this year, JD drones carried out normalized operations in Xi'an and Suqian. As of July 31, more than 800 sorties, over 4000 kilometers, and over 14000 minutes of operational flights had been completed in Xi'an alone.
Recently, JD Group has signed five cooperation agreements with partners such as the government, enterprises, and universities in Xi'an for the development and implementation strategy of the drone industry, covering multiple aspects such as the creation of key demonstration projects, talent cultivation, scientific research development, and technology implementation and application. It is reported that in February this year, JD Group has signed a smart logistics strategic cooperation agreement with the Shaanxi Provincial Government, reaching a series of consensus on the development of the drone industry. The two sides will work together to build the "world's first low altitude drone logistics network".
According to industry insiders, the maturity of JD drone technology and applications will greatly improve the current situation of traditional rural logistics with low efficiency, high costs, and poor user experience. It also creates more application scenarios for navigation logistics operations such as agricultural products upstream, and improves the resource circulation efficiency of the entire society.
Robot warehouse improves picking efficiency
For major logistics and distribution platforms, how to make distribution more "intelligent" has undoubtedly become the focus of industry competition, while making the distribution process "unmanned" has become the main direction of the development of major logistics and distribution platforms.
According to a reporter from Southern Daily, Cainiao Network has now established a logistics and warehousing fund with a scale of 8.5 billion yuan in cooperation with China Life Insurance to further layout intelligent logistics infrastructure. Novice has also promoted the application of artificial intelligence technology in more Tmall warehouses. In June this year, a warehouse center in Guangdong launched China's largest intelligent logistics robot warehouse, which can increase the efficiency of picking goods by more than three times. Through algorithmic control, these robots can automatically lift goods and move around, as well as avoid each other and queue up, representing the highest level of robotic warehouses in China.
JD.com has also made a layout in terms of "unmanned" intelligent logistics. As the only intelligent robot sorting center in the global e-commerce industry, the JD.com intelligent robot sorting center located in Machong, Dongguan, covers an area of 1200 square meters and cooperates with 8 automated transmission channels. More than 300 intelligent sorting robots adopt a new generation of intelligent algorithm automatic sorting systems. During the 618 period of this year, JD Unmanned Vehicle has also completed the delivery of packages.
"Robots can remember all the data and then make the entire journey very safe. Once accurate 3D imaging is available, it can produce very unexpected results. In other words, new technologies can be used to discover solutions that were not previously available, and the accuracy is higher." At the "2017 Global Automotive AI Conference" held recently, Sebastian Thrun, the father of Google's unmanned vehicles, highly praised the future of "unmanned" transportation equipment. From the perspective of industry insiders, as more "unmanned" devices are applied to the logistics and distribution industry, "smart logistics" will transform from "talking on paper" to a tangible high-quality experience.
