Close-up of 2,000 robots working in the warehouse like in the movie

Ocado's robotic system

The video has just been posted by e-commerce company Ocado (United Kingdom) on social networks, receiving countless admiration from the online community.

Thousands of robots move non-stop in a warehouse of more than 52,000m2, picking up goods, unloading goods and then arriving at the right packing area.

Many people think they are watching a sci-fi movie. In fact, this technology has been tested by Ocado since 2017 and officially works smoothly from the end of 2021.

Every day, "army" of 2,000 robots work for 20 hours. It is estimated that in each shift, each robot can pick and drop 2 million products in the warehouse. This performance far exceeds that of an ordinary worker.

Ocado's Robots

Each robot looks like a mini fridge, has 8 wheels so it is easy to move and navigate without bumping into "colleagues".

The robot will move just above a pattern called "hive". The "hive" can be visualized as a chess board, divided into small squares. Below each small box will be a column containing many types of goods arranged in order. In which, the popular goods will be on top, the less bought ones will be below.

The robot is controlled by an artificial intelligence system. When receiving the order to pick up goods according to the "locked" customer order, each robot will know how to move the fastest to the right location, pick up the goods and bring the goods to the picking station.

At the stations, the staff simply pick up the complete packages and transfer them to the shippers to deliver to customers.

According to James Matthews - CEO of Ocado Technology, one warehouse is equivalent to 35 supermarkets. It is estimated that each robot will complete a complete process from the moment it starts to receive orders in only about 5 minutes, 5 times faster than human workers.

Matthews said the algorithms find the products as quickly as possible without damaging the product.

Matthews also believes that "hive" is a technological advancement that completely changes the way e-commerce warehouses operate in the future because of its convenience and speed.

Taking the example of Ocado, Matthews said that in 2021, despite the impact of the pandemic, retail sales of Ocado Retail increased by 4.6% to £2.3 billion from 2020. Compared to 2019, sales of Ocado Retail Sales have increased 41.5% in two years.