Retail giant Walmart announced the rollout of 19 autonomous lift trucks across four high-tech distribution centers (DCs). The announcement was made in a blog post by Maurice Gray, General Manager of a Walmart distribution center in Brooksville, Florida.
The Foxbot autonomous lift trucks, produced by Fox Robotics, have been operational at the Brooksville facility as part of a 16-month pilot program. These robots fully automate the loading dock processes by autonomously unloading pallets of goods from trailers.
Walmart, the largest private employer in the U.S. with over 4.600 stores, also purchased a minority stake in Fox Robotics to “demonstrate a multi-year commitment to the company and its technology.”
Despite concerns about robots replacing human workers, Gray stated that the “relationship between our associates and our automated systems is one of constant progress and higher output.
In his blog post, Gray mentioned a longtime employee, Jose Molina (pictured below), who previously unloaded trucks manually and now oversees the Foxbot autonomous units. “Where Jose used to unload manually, he can now direct a FoxBot autonomous forklift to three times the same output,” Gray said.
The new system, according to Gray, is “bolstering their skills and bettering their jobs while building our business.”
Gray also explained how the work with autonomous robots will be structured. Upon arrival at the distribution center, trucks will be unloaded by forklifts using AI-powered machine vision and dynamic planning. The forklifts will then transport pallets to be processed by an automated storage and retrieval system, efficiently categorizing and storing goods.
In simpler terms, Walmart associates will transition from manual unloading to acting as coordinators, optimizing the unloading process based on their experience.
The introduction of robots in the warehouse hasn’t diminished the competitive spirit of the Brooksville employees. In an accompanying online profile of Molina, it is revealed that the longtime employee holds the DC’s record for most trailers unloaded in a single day — 27 trailers during a 10-hour shift, which is about double the amount usually possible.
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