The TORYs are coming! 24/7 book inventory with robots
Maybe you saw the magenta and white towers the last time you were in the library? Four TORY robots have found a new home at the Central Library and the Emil Figge Library since mid-December 2021. The autonomous robots will soon be driving through the library day in, day out - much like a vacuum cleaner robot.
The robots use the RFID radio system to precisely determine the location of all books. The manufacturer, Metralabs in Ilmenau, Germany, calls these robots TORY; they are already taking inventories in very many countries, for example in retail stores.
The result is the exact coordinates of each book, so misplaced books should be a thing of the past in the future. Soon we will also be able to give you the exact location of each book in the catalog plus [1]. We collect the coordinates to the books in a database or visualize them in a graphic, as shown in the following picture:
This project is the first permanent deployment of TORYs in a library for autonomous inventory and localization of media.
- When do the robots drive through the library?
Apart from breaks at the charging stations, the robots are to drive through the shelves as continuously as possible, recording changes in the inventory very quickly. - Do I have to make room? Can the robots approach me?
The TORYs have state-of-the-art sensor technology, can detect obstacles and drive past them. You don't have to make extra room for the robots. The robots also drive slowly and stop if they do come into contact with an obstacle.
[1] Katalog plus