Resource1-We know the resource, they are an available contractor

2-we know a resource, wed have to pull them out of a current obligation
3-we dont know a specific resource, but believe one of our team will know of a
resource or can figure it out with little risk
4-we dont know a specific resource, but have reasonable knowledge of the subject
matter, and believe we can locate a competent expert or can figure it out with some
risk
5-we dont know a specific resource and need to investigate, not our area of
expertise, doung it ourselves would present significant risk
Technical1-Common problem that we are familiar with, just need execution bandwidth
2-Fairly complex problem that we are familiar with, and the problem is not novel.
3- Complex problem that we are familiar with, and the problem is not novel.
4-Complex problem that we are not familiar with, but the problem is not novel.
5-Complex problem that is unique to us.
Schedule1-Very small sub-project.
2-Relatively small sub-project.
3- Significant portion of the schedule, but unlikely to drive completion dates
4-Risk of being the long stick in the schedule
5-Likely to be the long stick in the schedule

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1-3-2

1-4-2

1. Bot
a. Charge balancing
i. Imbalances should not account for more than 10% reduction in
pack life.
b. Computer vendor selection
i. Robust design and verification processes, control of BOM, robust
production test, demonstrated reliability or HALT (ideally
repeated HALTs)

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1-1-2

1-2-2
1-2-2

1-3-2

ii. Good support team, ability to do thorough and timely FACA

c. Quick charging
i. Should be able to recover 90% of the packs energy in 10
seconds?
d. Charge toe life
i. Minimize arcing, method to test connection before cranking up
current. May want arc detection (voltage monitoring) during
charging.
e. Compact electronics
i. Dont want them to drive the mechanical footprint.
f. Cost effective, locking cables
i. Cables should be designed to be made on a pegboard and
combined into harnesses for easy of assembly and service.
Consider consolidating connectors and cables even if this costs
some modularity.
g. Packaging
i. Easy to replace circuit boards and wear components
h. Ease of assembly
i. Minimize fastener hardware, but when needed, use SEMS (with
torx heads, IMO)
i. Motor amplifiers
i. Should be compact and capable of performing modest
synchronization. Conformal coating may be desirable. A local
(or at least USA based company) may be an advantage for high
levels of support.
j. Tape tracking optical sensor
i. Relatively easy in normal operation, but need to watch corner
cases (dust, frost, condensation, spills, etc)
k. RFID
i. Cost effective, quick enough to read pillars as we zing by them
at 6m/s. Nice if sensing range was a few inches.
l. Condensation/frost management
i. Might have to deal with wetness all over the bot, including
innards. Need to watch components that dont like humidity
(film capacitors, for example). May want to seal electronics,
heat electronics, conformally coat electronics. Need to also
think about supercaps, unprotected steel, and charge toes.
m. Thermal management
i. Dont want electronics getting above 40C. Also nice if we can
avoid a fan.
n. Charge monitoring, energy storage estimation
i. Want to keep track of how much energy we have in the tank
this needs to be shared with the host (part of the traffic
management decision making). Should be pretty accurate,
~5%.
o. Cap pack failure detection

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i. We want to detect pack failures that indicate the need for

service (cell inversion, cell shorts, cell opens). Pack failure
modes should not result in broader electrical damage.
Controls expansion interfaces, scalability
i. Should use scalable serial networks as much as possible to allow
the easy expansion of capabilities / options. Suggest CAN, extra
USB ports, configurable UARTS (RS232/485), DIO, SPI/I 2C, and
spare power connections.
Mechanical expansion interfaces, scalability
i. Should think about the capabilities we might want to add, and
architectures / features that allow them to be incorporated
through evolution, not revolution.
Design for one code base
i. Each circuit board needs to include comprehensive selfidentification mechanisms so that a single code base can run all
bot revisions.
Easy software updates
i. All software and firmware should be able to be updated
wirelessly through the host network. If an update fails,
bootloader resident to allow retries.
Architectures ability to move from purchased to internally designed
i. We should pick the final OS right out of the gate. Nice if we can
stick with a single processor family (ARM?) for this migration.
Voltage safety
i. Hazardous voltages should be shielded from fingers, even during
debug / repair
Unexpected motion safety
i. E-stop switches should be safety rated and may need to be
monitored.
ii. Only brushless motors, control should watch both hall effects
and motors to make sure motion makes sense.
Radiated emissions compliance
i. >10dB radiated emissions margin to ensure compliant
installations
Contract Manufacturer selection
i. High quality turnkey contract manufacturer, ability to help
develop test, refurb fielded product, conduct FACA. Global
footprint (USA, Asia, EU).
Wheel synchronization, esp on deck
i. Easiest if a dual axis amplifier with some local code can help
manage wheel synchronization. We will need to define how
much drift is acceptable.
ii. Good idea to implement encoder count validation using index.
Scalable power packs
i. Want to be able to change the energy storage based on the
needs of the installation. No other mechanical of electrical
features should change to accommodate pack size differences.

aa.Energy efficiency
i. We want an efficient drivetrain (including electronics), and
effective regeneration control.
ab.Quick horizontal / vertical conversion
i. This is especially important at the dance station needs to be
1 second to change modes.
ac. Smooth rack engagement / level transit in verticals
i. We dont want pinions crashing into the rack this needs to be
silky-smooth to set technical customers minds at ease, and
ensure system longevity.
ad.Failure behavior in verticals
i. We need brake(s), and a method to easy remove stuck bots.
ae.High reliability
i. PMs probably not a big deal, but unexpected down time should
be avoided at all costs. PICK VENDORS WELL! MTBF for bots
probably needs to be ~5 years?
af. Balance of pack life and density
i. Higher density lower life we need to find the right balance for
us. We also need robust pack heath monitoring so we can tell
when it needs to be replaced.
ag.Diagnostics
i. Exponential decay detail data recorder FIFO with RTC to aid FACA
ah.Tote management
i. Alignment, pick / place retry mechanisms, identification of worn /
damaged totes that should be taken out of service.
ai. Confidence in life of wear out components
i. Modeling, HALT, component level HASS, and demonstrated
reliability testing should be used as required.
ii. Suggest HALT and HASS for PCBAs, HASS for rack and pinion
engagement, HASS for tote handling, demonstrated reliability for
bot, modeling for supercaps.
2. External power supply
a. Cabling
i. Physically protected, integrated into structure, scalable, cost
effective, disconnect points for ease of service / installation. Will
have to decide if this is made onsite or offsite (length and labels
likely to be custom to each installation)
b. Leakage current detection
i. Might even be mandated, since we may have power in a wet
area
ii. Have to think about what we do when our GFI trips
c. Radiated emissions
i. Should pass with 10dB margin to ensure adequate system
level margin.
d. Cost
i. Will be expensive (monitored, redundant, huge power supplies
and UPSs from reliable manufacturers)

e. Backup power
i. Assume that we will need backup power. We need to think
about how this will work do we include a diesel generator as
part of our offering? Continuously monitored UPSs / bypass
switches to service, etc
f. Redundancy, diagnostics
i. Bot charging cant stop if a single supply goes down. We need
redundant, monitored supplies with hot-swap capability.
g. Serviceability
i. Major components should be swappable without taking down the
tool (power supplies, UPSs, batteries, etc)
h. Thermal management
i. Cabinet is going to make lots of heat. Will need redundant fans
to keep it cool. They should be filtered and monitored (suggest
Sanyo-Denki or EBM-Pabst)
3. Wifi network
a. Fault tolerance
i. If a router fails, communication must be maintained
b. Coverage
i. Need a methods to verify we have adequate coverage with
redundancy either a model or a test method
c. Protection from interference
i. We dont want external influences impacting our store. This is a
real concern IMO how do we protect ourselves?
d. International compliance
i. Different countries have different bands within 802.11. We need
to make sure we know how to deploy in each county
e. Security
i. This is another one that concerns me. We dont want to be
hacked.
f. Bandwidth
i. Probably not a major concern, but we should think about it it
might be powerful to support video streams from Bots
4. Structure
a. Cost
i. Need it to be cost effective. I think this is the largest cost-risk,
personally. IMO, a slew of minor details will likely consume a
large percentage of the cost of the structure.
b. Compliance
i. Needs to meet the building code requirements of the host
country
c. Bot serviceability
i. We need a method to evacuate bots when one fails, and a
method to safely remove failed bots
d. Condensation / Corrosion resistance

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f.
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k.

l.

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i. The track and shelving will cross thermal zones and will be made
of steel. There will be lots of wet steel unless we have thermal
breaks in the structure.
Frost management
i. We have to think about how we operate with frost, and consider
defrost procedures.
Ease of assembly / scalability
i. We need the ability to expand, reconfigure, relocate
Mechanical tolerancing
i. Over tolerancing will cost $, under tolerancing will impact
reliability. We need to really understand our dimensioning
requirements well.
Modularity
i. We should have a building-block architectur, allowing us to
create new installations from a fixed set of standard, stocked
components
Very low MTBF and MTTR
i. The structure, more than anything else, has to be really reliable.
And when it does fail, it needs to be quick to repair.
Backup method to hand-pick in case of severe failure?
i. Not sure we need this, but it is something to consider. Do we
need methods to manually complete all orders in queue, etc?
Cameras
i. We might want some cameras in the structure running on a
looped DVR.
Safety interlocks
i. We will want some method of preventing personnel from
entering zones that have active bots.
Spill/dust management
i. Bound to happen. How do we detect it, and how do we deal with
it?

5. Host
a. Traffic management
i. Assume our friends in Salt Lake are all over this.
b. Pick prioritization
i. I assume they have this under control as well.
c. Fault tolerance
i. Should be able to run with a broken bot in the structure, might
consider the problem more generally as a location-specific
obstruction
d. Maximize efficiency
i. We want the most throughput from the least bots
e. Change time management
i. Ensure bots get appropriate charge opportunities
f. Bot diagnostic data collection
i. Someone has to write software that collects bot diagnostic data.
Eventually this database will allow us to provide bot prognostics.
g. System health monitoring, alarm generation

i. Should the SW have a cellular modem? How connected do we

want our stores to a mother-ship monitoring center?