Kiva's Robots Bring New Meaning to Movable Shelves

(xconomy) -- Kiva Systems may be winning its battle against the science-fiction robots.

The Woburn, MA, company is a newcomer to a hidebound business. It builds “mobile fulfillment systems” that are overturning all the traditions of warehousing by making the shelves move around, rather than the people. The moving is done by squat wheeled robots that maneuver under the shelves, pick them up, and trundle them over to a person at a picking station, who grabs whatever items are needed to fulfill the next order and boxes them up to be shipped to a retail store or a mail-order customer.

It’s amazing to watch dozens of these little orange robots working in concert, lifting and spinning and scooting without once colliding or spilling anything. (For a lighthearted look at Kiva’s system in action, see this YouTube video of the robots dancing the Nutcracker ballet.) But warehousing is a centuries-old industry in which the last major innovation was the forklift. Convincing a warehouse manager that he should hire a fleet of R2-D2s to staff his next facility is a tough sell. full story