ABB Robotics targets e-commerce giants amid automotive slowdown
- Its new robotics systems are able to autonomously pick online shoppers’ orders received by warehouses
ABB and Silicon Valley start-up Covariant are partnering to work on warehouse robotics for e-commerce companies like Amazon.com and Alibaba Group Holding, as the Zurich-based automation giant is seeking revenues beyond the weakened car industry.
These new robotics systems are able to autonomously pick online shoppers’ orders received by warehouses.
The first such system is currently being deployed at Bpost Group’s Active Ants, a provider of e-commerce fulfilment services for web businesses in the Netherlands, ABB and Covariant said on Tuesday.
ABB, a leading global supplier of industrial robots, started developing systems for e-commerce logistics three years ago. The new partnership with Covariant, which develops artificial intelligence software to teach robots new skills, is intended to address a gap that ABB identified in the order picking process.
Its move into e-commerce is helping ABB to stand on “multiple legs as opposed to one strong leg”, Robotics and Discrete Automation president Sami Atiya said in an interview, adding that 60 per cent of the division’s annual sales come from sectors other than automotive.