The story of warehouse robots is the story of trying to catch up with Amazon. It's been more than a decade since the online giant revolutionized delivery services through his acquisition of Kiva Systems. To stay competitive, Walmart is taking a more gradual approach to automation through partnerships with various robotics companies.
On Thursday, the retail giant announced a partnership with Fox Robotics that will bring 19 of the Austin-based startup's robotic forklifts to its distribution centers. Today's news follows a 16-month pilot in which it was revealed that Walmart is trialling the technology at 6020 distribution centers.
The Florida distribution center is the first of what the company calls a “high-tech DC.” These are warehouses where the company will trial automation and various other technologies, which will then be rolled out to broader distribution channels and fulfillment centers. DC 6020 is where Walmart began testing his Symbotic package sorting and retrieval technology.
Following the success of this trial, Walmart announced plans to roll out the technology to all 42 of its regional distribution centers. This was almost double the original goal of 25 locations. This week's news is more modest, targeting four high-tech DC companies, but hopefully, well, retailers will order more.
Robotic forklifts represent a brownfield approach to automation. This means the company is effectively retrofitting existing warehouses with technology, rather than building spaces from scratch around technology. Sure, this is a faster and cheaper approach, but there may be trade-offs in the end.
So why automate your forklift? In addition to efficiency, a properly automated system provides added safety. Approximately 95 people are injured by forklifts every day in the U.S. Imagine operating heavy equipment that has blind spots and two giant metal protrusions sticking out in front of you. There are a lot of human workers hanging around that could prove to be potentially very dangerous.