Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 6.24
…Markets and Markets. Meituan's e-commerce rivals include Alibaba Group, Amazon.com, and JD.com. All of them are actively developing delivery robots and drones or are partnering with autonomous systems providers. Other companies working on delivery robots include Daxbot, Eliport, Postmates, Refraction AI, Tortoise, and Unity Drive Innovation. Kiwibot last week launched Version 4.0 of its eponymous robot and partnered with Segway. Chipotle invested in Nuro last month, and Domino's Pizza is testing deliveries with the Nuro R2 in Houston. In January, Starship Technologies raised $14 million and added more college campuses to the locations it serves. The company said it has…
Found in Robotics White Papers & Archives, with a score of 20.50
…have drastically increased over the last few years. With Amazon as the number-one online retailer offering free one-day shipping–and, most recently, two-hour shipping–consumers expect their packages to arrive immediately and free of charge. This shift in expectations has raised the bar for fulfillment: If companies can’t keep up with Amazon’s standards, for example, they risk losing market share to competitors that can. Prior to the pandemic, retail, e-commerce, and business-to-business (B2B) fulfillment operators were increasingly turning to collaborative mobile robots to gain operational flexibility to support growth and contain labor requirements. The pandemic accelerated the surge of automation needs.
Found in Robotics White Papers & Archives, with a score of 8.51
…to $4.88 trillion, more than double 2017 figures. The Amazon effect is at the heart of this e-commerce boom: consumers are empowered to demand what they want and when. These demands aren’t what they used to be, catching retailers and service providers ill-equipped to keep up. With shrinking store footprints and faster product turns, warehouse operators have been shifting to accommodate more SKUs and lower order quantities, while struggling to staff for growing demand and supporting service level goals. This new fulfillment landscape is forcing the hands of supply chain executives, leaving them no option but to automate or fold.…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 5.81
…an initial public offering (IPO) of $1.5 billion, and Amazon.com acquired Zoox for $1.2 billion in 2020. In January 2021, Cruise and parent company General Motors announced that they will work with Microsoft's Azure cloud computing platform as they develop and commercialize self-driving vehicles. Microsoft joined GM, Honda, and other investors in investing $2 billion in Cruise. Last month, Cruise acquired Voyage, which has been working on technology to provide autonomous mobility in senior citizen communities. Autonomous vehicle companies accounted for more than $3.3 billion in transactions in the first quarter of 2021. Last week, TuSimple Holdings announced an IPO…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 4.59
…general, there aren't enough people,” responded Huerta. “Even as Amazon fulfillment centers are growing, people are jumping ship for a 50-cent change in salary. In addition, people see the advancements in driverless cars and ask, 'Why aren't they in our warehouses?'” “We're one of the few applying an AMR philosophy to forklifts, tuggers, and palletization,” he said. “Our primary focus is on logistics, but we're also holding onto our development aspect for advanced robotics applications such as healthcare.” “Once we can do what we can in the warehouse, we want to go outside in the trucks, where we understand there…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 4.56
…After all, the cloud is a commodity. Companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, and others make billions of dollars because they know how to package, deliver, and support that commodity at scale. So it will be with autonomous robots. Execution will drive AMR adoption If all the above factors have only heightened demand for AMRs in sectors like logistics, manufacturing, retail, consumer goods, and pharma, then we should expect a large number of robots to enter service in those sectors. However, I do not expect that robot uptake will be concomitant with demand until we have resolved the product/market…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 3.65
…ecosystem for people just getting started or for an Amazon or Procter & Gamble that is further along in their journey.” Standards and partnerships In addition to ease of use, standards for safety and interoperability are crucial to encouraging businesses to use robotics. “Safety is critical,” Burnstein said. “The Washington Post recently talked to me and Boston Dynamics, and it reported that one of the main barriers to robot butlers in the home is the technology for working in different environments is still not there yet.” “Standards are always going to be a critical issue,” said Burnstein. “We're working on…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 6.26
…doesn’t need expensive programming. The ideal is like an Amazon warehouse—software is making all the decisions, but humans are working side by side with robots and autonomous systems. The mix of manual and automated labor will change and develop over the years as solutions change and develop. The future depends on the first stage, the current stage, working well. Ingredient technologies enabling autonomy Artificial intelligence is one of the key enabling ingredient technologies, but it is not the only one. In the past few years, machine learning, computer vision, and deep learning have enabled some amazing capabilities and tasks. However,…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 5.98
…Not only are companies with DC operations feeling the “Amazon effect” of filling orders faster and cheaper, but a growing importance has been placed on warehouse fulfillment among C-level leaders as a competitive lever, says John Sidell, CEO and principal with consulting firm New Course. “Chief supply chain officer is now a title in many large organizations,” says Sidell. “There is broad realization of just how important supply chain fulfillment is, because in many ways it’s the most crucial touchpoint with the customer.” The money has been pouring into DC-focused robotics and AI startups in recent years, with funding coming…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 14.61
…leveraging this tacit information for improved route planning. The Amazon Last Mile Routing Research Challenge encourages participants to develop innovative approaches leveraging artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, computer vision, and other non-conventional methods to produce solutions to the route sequencing problem which outperform traditional, optimization-driven operations research methods in terms of solution quality and computational cost. The challenge site is live and registration opens on 22 February. Visit routingchallenge.mit.edu Amazon is providing the training data for the models and will be evaluating submissions, with technical support from MIT CTL scientists. MIT CTL will publish and promote technical papers about…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 1.72
…and cost. In the realm of ecommerce, pioneers like Amazon relentlessly favored speed. That worked fine for brick-and-mortar retailers when their ecommerce volumes were in the single digits as a percentage of sales. However, given that today’s order volumes are likely here to stay, profitability is a mandatory consideration from here on out. Last-Mile Delivery A simple, back of the envelope SWOT analysis will tell you that retailers with brick-and-mortar stores have an obvious advantage over their direct-to-consumer (D2C) counterparts: their physical store footprint. Several last-mile delivery innovations have spawned from this advantage, including buy online, pick-up in-store and buy…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 3.29
…suffered hard under the crisis, leading online marketplaces like Amazon and Alibaba were able to expand their market shares during the lockdown and increase online sales during Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and other e-commerce peak seasons around the globe. China’s online giant, the Alibaba Group, generated a growth merchandise volume (GMV) of $74.1 billion during the 11-day “Global Shopping Festival” campaign in November, an increase of 26% compared to the same timeframe in 2019. In the meantime, Cainiao Network, the logistics arm of Alibaba Group, processed more than 2.32 billion delivery orders during the same period. Alibaba’s revenue for the…