Cartken
Cartken and Melco Mobility Solutions, a Mitsubishi Electric Group Company, announced a partnership that enters a new phase with the large-scale deployment of autonomous robots for material movement in Japan’s factories, warehouses, logistics, medical and life sciences facilities.
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Cartken
Cartken and Melco Mobility Solutions, a Mitsubishi Electric Group Company, announced a partnership that enters a new phase with the large-scale deployment of autonomous robots for material movement in Japan’s factories, warehouses, logistics, medical and life sciences facilities.
California-based autonomous robotics company Cartken and Melco Mobility Solutions, are expanding their strategic partnership through a new multi-million dollar agreement focused on industrial logistics. Melco Mobility Solutions is a Group Company of Mitsubishi Electric, a distributor of their automotive equipment products and operator of mobility offerings.
As part of this collaboration, Melco Mobility Solutions has placed an order for nearly 100 AI-powered Cartken Hauler robots to be deployed across industrial facilities in Japan within this fiscal year.
This latest initiative builds on a longstanding collaboration between the companies. Since 2022, Mitsubishi Electric and Melco Mobility Solutions have served as Cartken’s distributor and operator in Japan. Cartken said this has advanced their strategic initiative to expand autonomous robotics as a way to solve the country’s growing labor and logistics challenges. Mitsubishi Electric has also been a strategic investor in Cartken, participating in the last funding round.
Together, the companies have deployed Cartken robots across a range of use cases - from food delivery in urban areas with Uber Eats, to grocery delivery with Rakuten, and onsite material and documents movement on corporate campuses and industrial sites.
“We’re proud to deepen our partnership with Melco Mobility Solutions, a Group Company of Mitsubishi Electric, and bring Cartken Haulers into industrial environments in Japan at scale,” said Christian Bersch, co-founder and CEO of Cartken. “This order signals trust in Cartken’s technology, and the growing need for robust, safe and flexible robotic automation solutions that can fill a critical gap in material movement between indoor, outdoor, and multi-level environments.”
Melco Mobility Solutions has also played a major role in localizing Cartken’s technology and navigating regulatory approvals. The “Cartken Courier” robot model (formerly known as Model C) became the first delivery robot in Japan authorized for autonomous driving on public roads at nighttime.
Now, Melco Mobility Solutions is scaling its deployment of the Cartken Hauler - a larger, more rugged robot designed for interbuilding transport with a heavy-payload capacity of up to 660 lbs. (300 kg).
Cartken said the robot can autonomously navigate ramps and uneven ground in all weather conditions and offers flexibility in cargo design, allowing customization to suit a wide range of industrial use cases. The company said central to this expansion is its AI-based navigation and fleet management platform, which ensures reliable and safe operations.
“We are pleased to deepen our strategic partnership with Cartken,” said Yasuo Aoki, president and CEO of Melco Mobility Solutions. “By working with Cartken and Mitsubishi Electric to advance the deployment of automated delivery robots, we hope to contribute to solving social issues in Japan's industrial environment.”
Artificial Intelligence Machine Vision Machine Learning Autonomy Mobile Robots Industrial Automation Collaborative Robots Software Fleet Management News Press Release Autonomous Mobile Robots Cartken Delivery Service Deployment Food and Beverage Grocery Industry Materials Handling Mitsubishi Electric Navigation Partner
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