The Economist February 12th 2022 Science & technology 69of bots operate on the grid simultaneously,
they are much faster. The bots are choreo
graphed by an artificially intelligent com
puter system, which communicates with
each machine over a wireless network. The
system allows Ocado’s current bot, the 500
Series, to gather all the goods required for a
50item order in less than five minutes.
The new 600 Series will match or better
its predecessor’s performance and use less
energy. It also “unlocks a cascade of bene
fits”, says Mr Steiner, allowing Hives to be
smaller and lighter. This means they can be
installed in weeks rather than months and
at a lower cost. That will make “micro” ful
filment centres viable. Most fulfilment
centres are housed in large buildings on
outoftown trading estates, but smaller
units could be sited in urban areas closer to
customers. This would speed up deliver
ies, in some cases to within hours.
Amazon is also developing moreeffi
cient robots. Its original machines were
known as Kivas, after Kiva Systems, the
Massachusettsbased firm that manufac
tured them. The Kiva is a squat device
which can slip under a stack of head
height shelves in which goods are stored.
The robot then lifts and carries the shelves
to a picking station. In 2012 Amazon
bought Kiva Systems for $775m and later
changed its name to Amazon Robotics.
Welcome to the jungle
Amazon Robotics has since developed a
family of bots, including a smaller version
of a Kiva called Pegasus. These will allow it
to pack more goods into its fulfilment cen
tres and also use bots in smaller innercity
distribution sites. To prepare for a more
automated future, Amazon Robotics re
cently opened a new robot manufacturing
plant in Westborough, Massachusetts, to
boost its output.
In 2014, when it became clear that fu
ture Kivas would be made exclusively for
Amazon, Romain Moulin and Renaud
Heitz, a pair of engineers working for a
medical firm, decided to set up Exotec, a
French rival, to produce a different sort of
robotic warehouse. The firm has developed
a threedimensional system, which uses
bots called Skypods. Looking a bit like Ki
vas, they also roam the warehouse floor.
But instead of moving shelves, Skypods
climb them. Once the robot reaches the
necessary level, it extracts a crate, climbs
down and delivers it to a picking station.
Skypods, says Mr Moulin, maximise the
space in a warehouse because they can as
cend shelving stacked 12 metres high. Be
ing modular, the system can be expanded
easily. As well as returning crates to the
shelves, Skypods also take them to places
to be refilled.
A number of retailers have started using
Skypods, including Carrefour, a giant
French supermarket group, gap, an Ameri
can clothing firm, and Uniqlo, a Japanese
one. Because such robots move quickly
and could cause injury—Skypods zoom
along at four metres per second (14kph)—
they tend to operate in closed areas. If Am
azon’s staff need to enter the robot area
they don a special safety vest. This con
tains electronics which signal to any near
by bots that a human is present. The bot
will then stop or take an alternative route.
Some robots, however, are designed to
work alongside people in warehouses.They often ferry things between people
taking goods off shelves and pallets to peo
ple putting them into bags and boxes for
shipping. Such systems can avoid the cost
of installing fixed infrastructure, which
lets warehouses be reconfigured quickly—
useful for logistics centres that work for
multiple retailers and have to deal with
constantly changing product lines.
When robots work among people, how
ever, they have to be fitted with additional
safety systems, such as cameras, radar andA
lthoughit isa businessnotmany
are aware of, sidewalk robots are set
to become an industry with annual sales
of $1bn within a decade, reckons id-
TechEx, a British firm of analysts. These
four or sixwheeled autonomous ma
chines, usually the size of a suitcase, are
already delivering groceries and other
goods in America, China and Europe.
That puts them ahead of many driver
less cars, vans and lorries being devel
oped. Those bigger vehicles are held back
not by technology but regulation, says
Zehao Li of idTechEx. This means having
a “safety driver” on board ready to take
over if there is a problem, which is
hardly laboursaving.
For these larger contraptions reg
ulators want to see safety systems thor
oughly proved. But there are legal hur
dles, too. In January Britain’s Law Com
mission, which reviews legislation,
recommended that it should not be the
person in the driver’s seat who faces
prosecution if a vehicle in autonomousmodecrashes,butthemanufacturer or
body that sought approval for its use.
Meanwhile, sidewalk robots are get
ting on with the job. Among them, Star
ship Technologies, based in San Francis
co, reckons it has already clocked up
more than 2.5m deliveries with bots in a
number of cities, university campuses
and business parks in Europe and Amer
ica. Amazon is carrying out trials with a
similar sort of machine it calls Scout.
Kiwibot, a Colombian startup, is making
sidewalk deliveries in California.
Typically, these robots carry a few
bags of groceries using a variety of sen
sors, including cameras, radar and gpsto
navigate and avoid obstacles and people.
Their progress can be monitored on a
phone app, which also unlocks them for
goods to be retrieved. As they are small,
move slowly (Starship’s bots might reach
a heady 6kph) and are “telemonitored” by
people in a control room who can take
over, authorities seem more willing to
give them a green light.
Such robots are also becoming more
autonomous. In January Serve Robotics,
another San Franciscan firm whose
backers include Uber, a ridehailing
giant, said it had deployed a new side
walk bot with “level 4” autonomy, which
means it can operate without telemon
itoring in some predesignated areas.
Robotic versions which operate on
roads but have no driver’s cab are also
appearing. Nuro, a Silicon Valley firm,
makes one about the size of a small car
that can carry 24 bags of groceries. It has
chilled and heated compartments for
food and drinks. Udelv, also a Californian
firm, is developing a larger type called
Transporter to operate at highway
speeds. Being much further along the
road in earning their keep, these delivery
bots are helping to pave the way for the
time when bigger autonomous vehicles
can join them. Logistics(2)Autonomous deliveries
Sidewalk robots are already busy delivering groceriesYour friendly neighbourhood bot