Last month at ProMat 2023 in Chicago, Big Joe Forklifts, in partnership with Thoro.ai, unveiled its first autonomous offering: The Big Joe Pallet Mover. The Saint Carson, Calif.-based company said the new robot was designed to be set up and in use in less than an hour. The pallet mover can transports payloads up to 4,400 lb. (1,995 kg) and has a maximum speed of about 2.8 mph. It can operate continuously for 10 hours on a charge, according to a press release announcing the robot. Customers will see ROI quickly, says Big Joe In an interview with Robotics 24/7,…
FowardX Robotics is hoping to make a splash next week at ProMat 2023. The Beijing-based AMR maker will showcase a range of its robots designed for the logistics and warehouse markets. The company has already established a presence in Asia, ForwardX Robotics Chief Operating Officer Yaxin Guen told Robotics 24/7. The company said it has served over 100 customers, including JD.com, DHL, IKEA, TCL, and Walmart, according to its website. It secured its first U.S. contract in August. Hirocloud, which is based in Edison, New Jersey, is using 600 FowardX AMRs as its 50,000 sq ft. facility, according to the…
6 River Systems LLC announced yesterday its new Mobile Fulfillment app designed to help its customers pick items even when not using a Chuck mobile robot. The app is currently being tested by a select group of customers, and the Waltham, Mass.-based company said it expects it to be commercially available in the third quarter of 2023. The Mobile Fulfillment app, which users can access through a Zebra Android tablet, takes advantage of 6 River Systems’ cloud-based fulfillment execution system (FES). The company described the FES as a “combination of cloud-based software services and hardware that enables operators to optimize…
Embark Trucks, a robotics company developing autonomous systems for long-haul trucks, announced late last week that it is shutting down. Seventy percent of the company has already been laid off. The remaining 30% has been charged with helping the company wind down day-to-day operations. Embark Trucks CEO Alex Rodrigues shared the news in a Medium blog post, noting that the company was “unable to identify a path forward for the business in the its current form.” Embark was founded in 2016 and headquartered in San Francisco. It was developing software systems designed to be retrofitted onto long-haul trucks developed by…
Customers in the materials handling and manufacturing sectors are turning to automation to increase throughputs and to address labor challenges, but robotics vendors and industry analysts have continued to argue that human workers will be key to drive progress. So if that’s true, how are these automated systems being designed with worker interactions in mind? Robotics 24/7 spoke with several robotics suppliers to learn how they take humans into consideration when designing their products. Vecna’s Pivotal takes humans and robots into consideration With its Pivotal orchestration software platform, Vecna Robotics said it is working to integrate humans and machines into…
Locomation, an autonomous trucking company based out of Pittsburgh, will not be closing after all. In a statement to the publication FreightWaves, CEO Çetin Meriçli said the company had reduced its “non-engineering headcout in the face of economic headwinds.” The Pittsburgh Business Times previously reported that the company was shutting down because it had run out of cash and could not bring in new investors. “Unfortunately, we had an employee give an unauthorized and inaccurate quote, and despite providing further information, the original story ran anyway,” Meriçli told FreightWaves. Company recently hosted demos The news come just several weeks after…
