[Logistics Talk] Only with smart logistics can smart cities come to life!

Smart city , a huge and hot topic.

Whether at home or abroad, it is the focus of discussion in the science and technology community. Smart government affairs, smart transportation, smart medical care, digital cities , etc., each of them is related to it, but they are just the tip of the iceberg, or a certain stage in the development of smart cities. No one can fully summarize it.

But just as human health depends on the continuous supply of nutrients from blood, logistics is also indispensable for a city to achieve long-term development in the future. Taking advantage of the hot topic of "World Post Day" this week , I will analyze the trend from the perspective of smart logistics and see how smart logistics can empower smart cities.

If we regard the smart city as a huge body, artificial intelligence is its brain, the Internet of Things is its sense organs, then the smart logistics network is its blood, and the unmanned heavy trucks that make up the smart logistics system are equivalent to the red blood cells in the blood!

Because the L4-level unmanned heavy-duty truck transportation system will transport goods to various parts of the "body" quickly, efficiently, and accurately , just like red blood cells , continuously providing nutrition for the efficient operation of smart cities and helping smart cities develop rapidly and steadily.

Does such a "red blood cell" sound out of reach? In fact, earlier this year, Suning Logistics completed the first unmanned heavy-duty truck test in China's e-commerce industry in Shanghai.

This unmanned heavy truck is named "Xinglong No. 1" . In addition to being able to carry 40 tons and having a smart AI brain, it is also equipped with high-tech equipment such as laser radar.

Unmanned driving does not mean unsafe. Thanks to these black technologies, it can accurately identify obstacles 300 meters away, and can also perform emergency stops or detours at a reaction speed of 25m/s , making it easy to avoid obstacles even at speeds of up to 80km/h.

Not only does it perform well on highways, this high-tech "experienced driver" truck can also achieve functions such as autonomous obstacle avoidance, autonomous route planning, and automatic precision parking even when driving in narrow logistics parks with large passenger flow.

It can also control the error between two driving operations to within 2cm, which is extremely impressive. This alone puts it at the forefront of the industry.

This is the case in China, but what about abroad? The Silicon Valley bigwigs are certainly not to be outdone. Tesla CEO Musk, who is keen on building rockets, took the lead in the industry to launch the Semi, an improved electric semi-trailer truck that can drive automatically , and claimed that it will be mass-produced and put on the market after 2019.

Recently, some media have revealed that Tesla's all-electric unmanned truck is undergoing final freight testing. The testing location is between Tesla's own two factories. Considering Musk's own legend, it may really be possible to go on the market next year!

Unlike drone delivery, which focuses on the last kilometer , unmanned heavy trucks are more responsible for the tasks of transportation and allocation in smart logistics. The application scenarios are mostly on highways, which are relatively less complicated. Therefore, as long as the relevant policies and regulations are improved, unmanned heavy trucks are likely to become the first commercial unmanned driving project . Let's look forward to it!

The liver is the "warehouse" where the human body stores vitamins, and it is also the human body's logistics and energy distribution center. Therefore, in the huge body of the smart city, the "unmanned warehouse" in smart logistics plays the role of "liver" .

As the owner of the world's first fully unmanned warehouse, Asia No. 1 , JD's outstanding achievements in the field of smart logistics and warehousing have long made it a classic case in the logistics industry.

JD.com's unmanned warehouse - "Asia No. 1"

Here, both mental and physical work are done by robots: first, the robotic arm will automatically visually identify the size of the goods, and then cut and package the goods accordingly.

The goods will then be labeled with information and sent to the sorting area. 300 small sorting robots will automatically carry the goods back and forth in the warehouse and classify and place the goods. If they are running out of power, they will automatically return to the charging station for fast charging. A 10 -minute charge can last for 4 hours .

Such an efficient and coordinated working state naturally requires the support of artificial intelligence. JD’s "intelligent logistics brain" plays a key role in this. It can simultaneously calculate 68 billion possible paths for 300 sorting robots within 0.2 seconds and help them make the best choice.

There are also package supply, package collection, and transfer , etc. In short, in the entire process, robots with various functions achieve perfect coordination according to instructions, and almost no human participation is required.

In fact, overseas e-commerce companies are also exploring various areas of intelligent logistics. For example, Amazon has deployed 100,000 warehouse robots around the world. Their warehouse automation level and order processing capabilities are also at the forefront of the world.

It is worth mentioning that Amazon has also launched an “instant logistics service”, which can deliver goods within an hour through a series of calculations such as cloud computing AWS.

At least in terms of speed, quality and stability, Amazon has achieved the ultimate, and in the future, as technologies such as driverless cars, artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud computing continue to develop and mature, Amazon will push smart logistics to a new peak!

At present, smart cities have become a strategic policy being promoted by major countries around the world. Moreover, with the continuous development of economic globalization, global procurement, global production, global circulation, and global consumption will become an inevitable trend. By then, smart logistics will become the economic link for smart cities to communicate with the outside world.

For example, Cainiao Network, a subsidiary of Alibaba, has not only built an "intelligent logistics backbone network" in China, but has also built a global smart logistics network through years of operation.

It has gathered more than 100 global logistics partners and 231 cross-border logistics warehouses, covering 224 countries and regions. It has achieved 72-hour delivery in Spain, the Netherlands, France and many countries in Southeast Asia .

Take a recent example. In the past, Russian users who shopped online in China would face an extremely long international logistics delivery time of 50 days. Now, this number has been shortened to 5-7 working days.

From 50 days to 5 days, it is a full 10 times shorter! Although this is still a long way from the goal of "24 hours nationwide, 72 hours worldwide" , it can make people see the infinite potential.

The lives of urban residents are inseparable from logistics at all times. Therefore, the rapid rise of smart logistics will inevitably feed back into the development of smart city construction and accelerate the arrival of smart life.

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