Corvus Robotics brings autonomous inventory management system to lights-out warehouse

Corvus Robotics, a provider of autonomous inventory management systems, announced an updated version of its Corvus One system that brings, for the first time, the ability to fly its drone-powered system in a lights-out distribution center without any added infrastructure like reflectors, stickers or beacons.

The newest generation product is supported by an $18 million Series A round and seed funding led by S2G Ventures and Spero Ventures.

“Corvus Robotics fits our mission to invest in companies that truly transform the way business is conducted,” said Marc Tarpenning, co-founder of Tesla and partner at Spero Ventures. “Other than a landing pad, its drone-powered system requires no infrastructure, is quick and easy to deploy, and cost-effective to manage. It literally merges with the existing warehouse environment.”

“At S2G Ventures, we seek out disruptive innovations that address evolving industry needs, and we believe Corvus exemplifies this perfectly," said Arthur Chow, principal at S2G. "Its technology offers a tangible path to operational excellence by delivering accuracy and productivity gains, all while being easy to implement. We are proud to support a company that’s revolutionizing a core operational aspect for industries across the board.”

AI-driven real-world navigation

Using computer vision and generative AI to understand its environment, the fully autonomous Corvus One drone system operates in both very narrow aisles (minimum width of 50 inches) and in very wide aisles. With its obstacle detection, the light-weight drone safely flies at walking speed without disrupting workflow or blocking aisles and can preventatively ascend to avoid collisions with people, forklifts or robots, if necessary. Its advanced barcode scanning can read any barcode symbology in any orientation placed anywhere on the front of cartons or pallets.

“Being able to run inventory checks 24/7 without operator assistance has been a game changer,” said Austin Feagins, senior director of solutions, Staci Americas. “The lights-out capability in the Corvus One system allows our inventory teams to correct discrepancies off-shift and pre-shift before production starts each day; limiting fulfillment delays and production impacts."

Corvus One can be relied upon to boost efficiency and cut overall inventory costs according to the company, specifically:

• 10x labor productivity: By shifting associates to higher-value tasks like picking and replenishment, Corvus One improves operational efficiency while also realizing hundreds of thousands of dollars in labor savings.
• Inventory accuracy and space optimization: The system helps maximize space utilization, avoid stockouts, and improve KPIs with smarter replenishment and more accurate physical inventory (PI) counts. It ensures 99.9% inventory accuracy, can free up to 10% total pallet racking space, and reduces shrinkage and material handling equipment costs.
• Flexible WMS integration: Corvus One works with or without a warehouse management system (WMS). Lite integration is available via CSV or XLS exports
• Quick and easy implementation: With no Wi-Fi installation required, deploying Corvus One takes less than a week.

“The Corvus One system is a vital component of end-to-end inventory visibility and optimization,” said Jackie Wu, co-founder and CEO, Corvus Robotics. “We're growing extremely quickly, and our recent funding round will be used to help Corvus meet rapidly growing customer adoption while continuing to build products with capabilities nowhere else in the world ever has had."

Corvus Robotics also received a $5 million seed funding round in 2022.