Five Steps to Integrate SAP Warehouse Robotics with Non-SAP Fleet Management Systems

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The goal of this document is to guide users with a test and demo license for SAP Warehouse Robotics through the steps for integrating with the fleet management systems. This document covers the following steps:

• Setting up SAP Warehouse Robotics


• The integration settings for SAP EWM mock service


• The integration settings for non-SAP fleet management systems

0. Get an Overview of SAP Warehouse Robotics 

Click here to watch some demo videos about SAP Warehouse Robotics.

SAP Warehouse Robotics is a product that is built on SAP BTP. You can use it to automate your warehouse operations using robots, for example, to move handling units (HUs) from source storage bins to destination storage bins. 

SAP Warehouse Robotics makes integrating robots as easy as plug and play. Users of SAP Extended Warehouse Management (SAP EWM) can quickly integrate almost any kind of autonomous mobile robots.

1. Get to Know SAP Warehouse Robotics APIs 

SAP Warehouse Robotics provides application programming interfaces (APIs) to integrate with the fleet management systems of robot vendors. 

To integrate SAP Warehouse Robotics with fleet management systems from different robot vendors, you need to implement an adapter. The adapter is a component between SAP Warehouse Robotics and the fleet management system. You can use the adapter to perform the following actions: 

• To translate robot tasks dispatched from SAP Warehouse Robotics into APIs in the fleet management systems. 

• To write back the robot task statuses from the fleet management systems to SAP Warehouse Robotics. 

The API for the adapter of the fleet management system is published on the SAP Business Accelerator Hub. For more information, see Integration with Fleet Management Systems

For more information, see API documentation for fleet management.

2. Get a Test Tenant  

2.1 Subscribe to SAP Warehouse Robotics 

Note: 

You need to buy a test and demo license for SAP Warehouse Robotics. 

When you're creating a subaccount in SAP BTP cockpit, to subscribe to SAP Warehouse Robotics, you can select the regions: 

Europe (Frankfurt) - AWS (with technical key: cf-eu10), US West (WA) (with technical key: cf-us20), China (Shanghai) (with technical key: cf-cn40). If you choose other regions, you can't see the SAP Warehouse Robotics tile. In that case, under your global account, delete the subaccount. And create an account again. 

After creating a subaccount, assign entitlements (SAP Warehouse Robotics) to your subaccount. An entitlement is your right to provision and consume a resource. In other words, entitlements are the service plans that you're entitled to use. For more information about configuring entitlements, see Configure Entitlements and Quotas for Subaccounts.

Perform the following steps to subscribe to SAP Warehouse Robotics. 

1. In your SAP BTP cockpit, under your global account, choose Create -> Subaccounts. Then enter the subaccount name and select a Region. 

2. Under your subaccount, choose Service Marketplace.


3. On the Service Marketplace, search for SAP Warehouse Robotics.


4. Choose Create and select a Plan for your service. You should choose the "Test and Demo" plan. Wait for the system to process the subscription.


5. Choose View Subscription or go to Instances and Subscriptions to view the submission status. As soon as the status icon switches from Processing to Subscribed, the subscription process has finished. 

2.2 Check Roles Using Existing Role Templates 

1. In the SAP BTP cockpit, under your subaccount, choose Services -> Instances and Subscriptions, and then choose SAP Warehouse Robotics. Don't choose the title of subscription. Otherwise, you go to the application.


2. Choose Roles.


3. There are three default roles added to your subaccount based on the role templates. For more information about the existing roles in SAP Warehouse Robotics, see Defining and Bundling Roles. Note that the WAREHOUSE_ACCESS role will, by default, provide access to all warehouses.


4. If you want the role to have access only to a specific warehouse, choose to add a role based on the role template WAREHOUSE_ACCESS. When you're configuring attributes, specify a warehouse.

2.3 Maintain Role Collections and Assign Users

Use the SAP BTP cockpit to manage role collections. 

1. Go to your subaccount and choose Security → Role Collections.


2. To create a new role collection, choose Create New Role Collection and enter a name.


3. To add roles to your new role collection, edit it. Choose the name of the role collection for editing.


4. Under the Role tab, choose the roles for the existing role templates for SAP Warehouse Robotics. For more information about the roles for SAP Warehouse Robotics, see Defining and Bundling Roles.


5. Under the Users tab, enter the ID and the email of the user. Or under the User Group tab, enter the ID the user group.


6. Save your changes.

For more information,see Maintain Role Collections.

For more information, see the onboarding guide in the SAP Note 3198030

3. Implement the Adapter to Integrate with SAP Warehouse Robotics

For the integration between SAP Warehouse Robotics and non-SAP fleet management systems, the

communication is bidirectional, and you need to set up a two-way connection.

To integrate SAP Warehouse Robotics with your fleet management systems, you need to implement an adapter. The adapter is a component between SAP Warehouse Robotics and the fleet management system. For the implementation of the adapter, you need to refer to the API details in the documentation links of Chapter 1. After the adapter is implemented, follow this guide Connection Guide for Fleet Management Systems to set up the connection between SAP Warehouse Robotics and your adapter of the fleet management system.

4. Testing with Mock Service for SAP EWM

If you have an EWM system, you can connect SAP Warehouse Robotics to the following product types of SAP Extended Warehouse Management (SAP EWM):

• SAP EWM (SAP EWM 9.5)


• EWM as part of SAP S/4HANA (SAP S/4HANA 2021 or higher) with the following deployment options:
  
  
  
  • Decentralized EWM based on SAP S/4HANA
  
  
  • EWM embedded in SAP S/4HANA
  
  
  
  

If you don't have an EWM system, but you can set up a mock service for EWM for the integration with SAP Warehouse Robotics.

You can use the mock service to contain a few warehouse orders and warehouse tasks. The corresponding robot tasks can be dispatched to the fleet management system to test your integration.



 

How to Configure SAP Warehouse Robotics for EWM Mock Service

To set up the integration for mock service, you need to do the following configuration steps:

1. Create a destination in your SAP BTP account to connect to the mock service using the following information:

Attribute	Value	Comment
Name	MOCK_EWM_SRV	The value is fixed. It can't be changed.
Type	HTTP
URL	https://wr-mock-service-for-ewm-<landscape-endpoint>;	You need to choose the correct endpoint according to the location of subscription for SAP Warehouse Robotics.
Proxy Type	Internet
Authentication	Basic Authentication	We only support basic authentication.
User		You need to query the user from SAP. Create a BCP incident under the component SCM-WR-*. For more information about reporting an incident, see here.
Password		You need to query the password from SAP. Create a BCP incident under the component SCM-WR-*. For more information about reporting an incident, see here.

Landscape information

Landscape	Endpoint
AWS	prod.cfapps.eu10.hana.ondemand.com
AZURE	us20.cfapps.us20.hana.ondemand.com
Alibaba Cloud	cn40.wi.cn40.apps.platform.sapcloud.cn

2. Perform the following actions in SAP Warehouse Robotics:

• “Configure Your Solution” app
  
  
  
  • Choose the "Manage Your Warehouse" step and create a warehouse.
  
  
  • Choose the "Define EWM Integration Settings" step and choose the destination that you created for the mock service.
  
  
  • Choose the "Upload Warehouse Data" step and upload the sample data. Download the sample data from the attachments of this SAP Note  3296106.
  
  
  
  


• "Onboard Robots - Fleet Management“ app


• Onboard your fleet management systems and robots. For more information, see Onboard Robots - Fleet Management.


• "Define Robot Processes" app
  
  
  
  • Assign EWM resources to your robots
  
  
  • Create a robot process. Choose the resource type "RTRO" and resource group "RGRO" under the "Warehouse Order Selection" tab. For more information, see Define Robot Processes.
  
  
  
  

Functionality of EWM Mock Service

By using the mock service, you can perform the following actions:

1. Enable or disable robot processes. Once a robot process is enabled, the warehouse orders and tasks from the mock service will be retrieved and the corresponding robot tasks will be dispatched to your fleet management system.


2. In the "Monitor Robots" app, you can view the retrieved orders for testing purpose. The warehouse orders prestored in the EWM mock service will be displayed. After the robot process is enabled, you can view the dispatched robot task information. If you disabled a robot process and enable it again, the tested robot tasks will be dispatched again. The tested robot tasks are in the statuses: completed, closed, canceled, rejected or error.

5. How to Become an SAP Partner Edge Partner

Now that we have delivered connectivity to the SAP Warehouse Robotics, your next step is to become an SAP PartnerEdge member. SAP PartnerEdge provides network solution and content providers an official SAP Partner status to allow joint go-to-market and marketing with SAP. You will profit from inclusion in the global go-to-market assets and enablement activities for the SAP Warehouse Robotics. As a partner, you may issue SAP-supported press releases, participate in SAP events, and publish co-branded marketing materials for the joint solution and partnership. You will also have access to SAP partner management, for example to connect you with the relevant SAP stakeholders for opportunity and customer project alignment. Furthermore, with PartnerEdge membership, your solution will be included in the SAP APP Center for marketing and sales to SAP customers.

 

To become a PartnerEdge member, you will need to complete the following:

1. SAP PartnerEdge Build, Integrate application


2. Application Readiness Check (ARC) for solution validation


3. Due Diligence check for compliance validation


4. SAP App Center account and solution listing

Find out more here.