The Rise of the Robot Warehouse

Amazon’s low key purchase of Kiva Systems back in 2012 has turned out to be one of Jeff Bezos’ best business decisions yet. By ending Kiva’s sales to competitors, Amazon has also set off a warehouse robot arms race, mostly playing out in the Boston area. The Globe writes:

Credit Amazon’s decision to stop selling robots to Kiva’s traditional customers, including rival retailers Walgreens, Staples, and The Gap. That move gave birth to a new generation of robot makers scrambling to fill the vacuum.

“Amazon has created an arms race,” said Rick Faulk, chief executive of Locus Robotics, a Wilmington company founded by Quiet Logistics Inc. an eight-year-old warehouse operator in Devens that was left high and dry by the Kiva deal. And many of the key arms merchants are located in the Boston area.

Locus is among several competitors to Kiva, which has been renamed Amazon Robotics. Others include Vecna Technologies Inc. in Cambridge, a nearly 20-year-old maker of medical robots and software, which in April unveiled a suite of machines for use in warehouses. In March, 6 River Systems of Waltham, a startup founded by former Kiva engineers, introduced a roving robot that accompanies workers as they pluck items from warehouse shelves.

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And in Somerville, another new company called RightHand Robotics has tackled perhaps the toughest challenge in the industry: building a robotic hand that can reach into a bin that is full of merchandise and pick individual items out for shipment.

Robotic warehouse gear has been in use for decades, but machines today use cameras, radios, and other sensors, along with a digital map of their surroundings, to find merchandise and avoid hitting people or obstacles.

“We’re able to map warehouses the same way autonomous cars can find their way through the streets,” said 6 River cofounder Rylan Hamilton.

The warehouse robot sector is another booming facet of Massachusetts’ already muscular robotics industry, which includes military and nautical robot builders, as well as iRobot Corp., with its popular Roomba automated vacuum cleaners. The industry has well more than 120 companies, about 4,700 employees, and revenues of $1.6 billion, according to an October 2016 report by the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative.

Warehouse robots may be the unglamorous cousins of the robot family — until you look at the bottom line. The market research firm Tractica estimates that in 2021, companies worldwide will spend $22.4 billion on warehouse robots.

Read more about the robot arms race here.

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E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. His focus at all times is on preparing clients and readers for “Times Like These.” E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zildjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com To sign up for my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter, click here.