Automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS) are a key component of the modern storage industry, and are used in a wide range of applications, carrying anything from lightweight tape cartridges to entire pallets of goods. Many of these systems are under pressure to maximise the use of space by growing in height and density, but this can create challenges for the the robots that service them. In this context, we present RASCAL, a novel ASRS robot for small payload items in structured environments, with a focus on system-level scalability and redundancy. We describe the design objectives of RASCAL and how they address some of the limitations of existing robotic systems in this area, such as scalability and redundancy. We then demonstrate the viability of our design with a proof-of-concept implementation of a data centre storage media robot, and show through a series of experiments that its design, speed, accuracy, and energy efficiency are appropriate for this application.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS) are a key component of the modern storage industry, and are used in a wide range of applications, carrying anything from lightweight tape cartridges to entire pallets of goods. Many of these systems are under pressure to maximise the use of space by growing in height and density, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1024749,"template":"","meta":{"msr-url-field":"","msr-podcast-episode":"","msrModifiedDate":"","msrModifiedDateEnabled":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","footnotes":""},"msr-content-type":[3],"msr-research-highlight":[],"research-area":[13552,13547],"msr-publication-type":[193716],"msr-product-type":[],"msr-focus-area":[],"msr-platform":[],"msr-download-source":[],"msr-locale":[268875],"msr-post-option":[],"msr-field-of-study":[249835],"msr-conference":[],"msr-journal":[],"msr-impact-theme":[],"msr-pillar":[],"class_list":["post-1024734","msr-research-item","type-msr-research-item","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","msr-research-area-hardware-devices","msr-research-area-systems-and-networking","msr-locale-en_us","msr-field-of-study-robotics"],"msr_publishername":"","msr_edition":"","msr_affiliation":"","msr_published_date":"2024-5-1","msr_host":"","msr_duration":"","msr_version":"","msr_speaker":"","msr_other_contributors":"","msr_booktitle":"","msr_pages_string":"","msr_chapter":"","msr_isbn":"","msr_journal":"","msr_volume":"","msr_number":"","msr_editors":"","msr_series":"","msr_issue":"","msr_organization":"","msr_how_published":"","msr_notes":"","msr_highlight_text":"","msr_release_tracker_id":"","msr_original_fields_of_study":"","msr_download_urls":"","msr_external_url":"","msr_secondary_video_url":"","msr_longbiography":"","msr_microsoftintellectualproperty":1,"msr_main_download":"","msr_publicationurl":"","msr_doi":"","msr_publication_uploader":[{"type":"file","viewUrl":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/uploads\/prod\/2024\/04\/ICRA-rascal.pdf","id":"1025877","title":"icra-rascal","label_id":"243109","label":0}],"msr_related_uploader":"","msr_attachments":[{"id":1025877,"url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/uploads\/prod\/2024\/04\/ICRA-rascal.pdf"},{"id":1024758,"url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/uploads\/prod\/2024\/04\/ICRA24-Paper-camera-ready.pdf"}],"msr-author-ordering":[{"type":"user_nicename","value":"Richard Black","user_id":33417,"rest_url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/microsoft-research\/v1\/researchers?person=Richard Black"},{"type":"user_nicename","value":"Marco Caballero","user_id":41281,"rest_url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/microsoft-research\/v1\/researchers?person=Marco Caballero"},{"type":"user_nicename","value":"Andromachi Chatzieleftheriou","user_id":37833,"rest_url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/microsoft-research\/v1\/researchers?person=Andromachi Chatzieleftheriou"},{"type":"user_nicename","value":"Tim Deegan","user_id":38353,"rest_url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/microsoft-research\/v1\/researchers?person=Tim Deegan"},{"type":"text","value":"Philip Heard","user_id":0,"rest_url":false},{"type":"user_nicename","value":"Freddie Hong","user_id":43017,"rest_url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/microsoft-research\/v1\/researchers?person=Freddie Hong"},{"type":"user_nicename","value":"Russell Joyce","user_id":39754,"rest_url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/microsoft-research\/v1\/researchers?person=Russell Joyce"},{"type":"user_nicename","value":"Sergey Legtchenko","user_id":33580,"rest_url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/microsoft-research\/v1\/researchers?person=Sergey Legtchenko"},{"type":"user_nicename","value":"Ant Rowstron","user_id":31061,"rest_url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/microsoft-research\/v1\/researchers?person=Ant Rowstron"},{"type":"text","value":"Adam Smith","user_id":0,"rest_url":false},{"type":"user_nicename","value":"David Sweeney","user_id":31553,"rest_url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/microsoft-research\/v1\/researchers?person=David Sweeney"},{"type":"user_nicename","value":"Hugh Williams","user_id":32055,"rest_url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/microsoft-research\/v1\/researchers?person=Hugh Williams"}],"msr_impact_theme":[],"msr_research_lab":[199561],"msr_event":[],"msr_group":[],"msr_project":[955254,433749],"publication":[],"video":[],"download":[],"msr_publication_type":"inproceedings","related_content":{"projects":[{"ID":955254,"post_title":"CRAFT: Creative Robotics and Future Technologies","post_name":"craft","post_type":"msr-project","post_date":"2023-07-20 03:38:31","post_modified":"2024-11-01 08:08:39","post_status":"publish","permalink":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/project\/craft\/","post_excerpt":"Microsoft's data-centre footprint is expanding rapidly to meet the growing global demand for compute and storage. Our team is exploring the potential of automation and robotics to enhance the sustainability, efficiency, and reliability of the datacenter operations. The team is comprised of experts in mechanical design, electronics, computer systems, machine learning and robotics, who work together to turn our ideas into reality. We don't just brainstorm solutions - we bring them to life! Thanks to…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-project\/955254"}]}},{"ID":433749,"post_title":"Project Silica","post_name":"project-silica","post_type":"msr-project","post_date":"2017-10-20 05:53:44","post_modified":"2024-10-01 00:53:49","post_status":"publish","permalink":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/project\/project-silica\/","post_excerpt":"Project Silica is developing the first-ever storage technology designed and built from the media up, for the cloud. We are leveraging recent discoveries in ultrafast laser optics to store data in quartz glass by using femtosecond lasers, and building a completely new storage system designed from scratch around this technology.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-project\/433749"}]}}]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-research-item\/1024734"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-research-item"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/msr-research-item"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-research-item\/1024734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1024755,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-research-item\/1024734\/revisions\/1024755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1024749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1024734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"msr-content-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-content-type?post=1024734"},{"taxonomy":"msr-research-highlight","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-research-highlight?post=1024734"},{"taxonomy":"msr-research-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-area?post=1024734"},{"taxonomy":"msr-publication-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-publication-type?post=1024734"},{"taxonomy":"msr-product-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-product-type?post=1024734"},{"taxonomy":"msr-focus-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-focus-area?post=1024734"},{"taxonomy":"msr-platform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-platform?post=1024734"},{"taxonomy":"msr-download-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-download-source?post=1024734"},{"taxonomy":"msr-locale","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-locale?post=1024734"},{"taxonomy":"msr-post-option","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-post-option?post=1024734"},{"taxonomy":"msr-field-of-study","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-field-of-study?post=1024734"},{"taxonomy":"msr-conference","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-conference?post=1024734"},{"taxonomy":"msr-journal","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-journal?post=1024734"},{"taxonomy":"msr-impact-theme","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-impact-theme?post=1024734"},{"taxonomy":"msr-pillar","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-pillar?post=1024734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}