Otto Group - Fleet of 100+ AI Warehouse Robots

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Otto Group - Fleet of 100+ AI Warehouse Robots

Content

The Otto Group, the largest online retailer of European origin, is deploying the world's most innovative automation strategies to improve the performance and accuracy of its supply chain. Otto Group has entered into a long-term strategic relationship with Covariant. In Otto Group's fulfillment centers, more than a hundred AI robots will be deployed to handle the order-picking process. Covariant has taken a similar approach to building a foundation model with reinforcement learning to revolutionize the handling of objects in the physical world, analogous to how ChatGPT was built on a foundation model for language. With the Covariant partnership, the Otto Group is leveraging the first foundation model for robotics to achieve autonomous robotic picking at scale. What is unique to Covariant is that rather than building specialized models trained on a small number of items, Covariant builds the Covariant Brain, a single foundation model trained on millions of objects from warehouses around the world. This enables the robots to handle the widest variety of SKUs and items possible, from small cosmetics to apparel polybags to fresh groceries. Additionally, all Covariant robots learn together as a fleet since they are connected to the same universal AI brain, ensuring that learnings and operational improvements automatically propagate across the entire Otto Group network. In 2023, the transformation began at Hermes Fulfilment's Haldensleben site. A Covariant induction robot can perform up to 1,600 picks per hour, inducting items onto sorters, conveyors, and auto-baggers. The integration addresses several logistics challenges: the skills shortage can be compensated for, and fulfillment centers can continue operating close to customers, strengthening Europe as a location for doing business. Employees work alongside AI-powered Covariant Induction stations, with their roles evolving to include programming and maintaining the robotic stations while robots handle repetitive physical tasks.