RG Group tapped to develop a 5G smart warehouse for U.S. Navy 

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A York-based industrial firm with expertise in robotics and automation is working with the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Department of Defense to create a smart prototype warehouse that will use 5G technology to provide secure, efficient, and cost-effective movement of essential supplies. 

RG Group is part of a $600 million government program for 5G testing at five U.S. military test sites, representing the largest full-scale 5G tests for dual-use application in the world. 

RG Group was chosen by Deloitte, which provides industry-leading audits, consulting, tax and advisory services, to create the autonomous robotics needed to automate the smart warehouse which will be located at the Naval Supply Systems Command Naval Base, Coronado, CA.  

The project, which got underway earlier this year, is being created in the company’s warehouse on Flour Mill Road in York. It is expected to be completed by 2024. 

Patrick Gross, vice president of the automation and robotics segment for RG Group, said the project will use 5G technology to move the autonomous mobile robots throughout the warehouse to gather and ship essential supplies to military personnel around the world. 

“Our part (in the project) is the autonomous mobile robots,” Gross said. “Think about how Rumba vacuums work. We use that same approach only with massive amounts of space” and weight.

Warehouse systems, he said, are inefficient, lack inventory, have low visibility and are cyber insecure. With this technology, the robots will receive orders via 5G communication. They retrieve the items and move them to where they need to go to be shipped. 
“This has big implications for the Navy for their supply chain,” he said. “This is exploratory, so we’ll see how it works.”  

Kelly Marchese, principal with Deloitte Consulting, said by “leveraging innovative 5G location technology, tomorrow’s service members will not only be able to decrease manual processes and redirect attention to uniquely human tasks that support the mission, but keep classified location data protected while doing so.” 

According to the Department of Defense, AT&T and GE Research are working on the cellular networks; Vectrus Mission Solutions Corp. is working on industry-leading capabilities for inventory management, network security, robotic material moving and environmental sensing; and Deloitte will support the robotics, unmanned aircraft systems with autonomous drones, biometrics, cameras and digitally tracked inventory. 

RG Group was chosen by Deloitte to build the autonomous mobile robots. Gross, who joined his father and grandfather in the business 10 years ago after obtaining a master’s degree in business, said the automation and robotics division of the company is now its fastest growing segment and is responsible for the partnership with Deloitte. In the past four years the automation and robotics group has quadrupled in size.

“My grandfather, Bill Gross, started the company 64 years ago and focused on hydraulics and pneumatics,” he said. “My father, Randy Gross, still works at 76.” 

The robotic technology is not new. Gross said it is being used in warehouses throughout the country, just not with 5G technology. The new technology will be a for the Department of Defense and is much more powerful than the 5G received on phones. 

The robots work like forklifts but with no human drivers, he said. “This will enhance the readiness of the military in the sense of making it more efficient, safer and more cost effective.” 

All the parties involved in the project are working at the York warehouse. Gross said they are building the system and testing it at the same time.  

“We will be fully functional by December. Then we will showcase it to the commander from Coronado. It’s pretty exciting,” Gross said. 

RG Gross employs 142 people. Gross said he expects to be hiring more in the near future.  

The other projects include Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality training at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington; 5G Market Warehousing for vehicles, Marine Corps Logistics base, Albany, Georgia; Distributed Command and Control, Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada; and Dynamic Spectrum Utilization at Hill Air Force Base, Utah.