Inside A Warehouse Where Thousands Of Robots Pack Groceries

Ocado's new warehouse has thousands of robots zooming around a grid system to pack groceries. The thousands of robots can process 65,000 orders every week. They communicate on a 4G network to avoid bumping into each other. Is this the future of retail?

Tech Insider tells you all you need to know about tech: gadgets, how-to's, gaming, science, digital culture, and more.

[graemewhittle]

Very poor video. 4 minutes of rolling robots !
What do they do, where does the produce enter the system, how does the robot pack the crate, how do the crates move.
VERY uninformative.

[TBoy]

“How do the robots work? They move along a grid system.”

No shit?

[susanwall]

I've been an Ocado customer for nigh on twenty years. The robot system in Andover is amazing. I've watched these videos many times and I'm still in awe. Absolutely fantastic. I so wish they had open days to actually be there to watch. My orders come from Andover and it would make an old girl really happy to be able to see my weekly order being picked and packed. Wishful thinking I suppose ....

[thethleper]

The explanation of how they work is ridiculous. I have more questions now than I did before watching this video.

[ParalysedGekko]

Weird. A lot of video. And no explaination at all.

[frankerzed]

They are controlled by an air traffic control system
???? 😂😂😂

[Conceptualcreatures]

More information on what the bots are actually doing would be really great.
Do they get assigned one persons order each and travel around until they have all the items, then deliver them to an allocated slot? Or is there one bot per grocery item delivering their one item to all the customer crates that have ordered the item? Or do the bots only replace empty grocery crates? As shown?

[christiangeiselmann]

This video does not explain the most basic question: what are these carriages actually doing. I thought they drop stuff into the crates, but they don't. So what do they actually do? Only placing a crate at a certain position? Why?

[wassocks]

Woah, I had no idea ordering from Ocado was so futuristic! I thought someone went round the warehouse with a shopping list collecting the items, putting them into bags, and then loading the van 🙈 xx

[NyanHomeschoolGirl]

This is great! I’m a firm believer that technology should replace humans in mundane, easy, and maybe even dangerous positions so that everyone can have a passion job that they care about rather than a service job that they only do to get by!

[apha]

That machine is out there.
It can't be bargained with, it can't be reasoned with.
It doesn't feel pity or remorse or fear and it absolutely will not stop, ever.
Until you are fed.

[JustinY.]

I thought this was about Amazon for a second

[stewiegriffin]

"they are using 4G, and thats how they don't crash". LOL
They don't crash because few under payed programmers did the whole job writing the algorithm. 4G is just communication protocol.

[atomicsmith]

yeah, but where do the groceries come from in this system?

[mypersonalchannelvideo]

An explenation could help. These robots are basically digging for a tote, picking it up, holding it inside the robot and than bring it to a human pick station. There the operator picks one or more items from the tote and puts these in a client carton. In the video you also see a cobot doing some picking. Still humans are more efficient for this last stage and able to arrange stuff in a box without braking the lot.

[patandbrandi]

I wish there was footage of how the pick and pack orders.

[AntTonyLOLKID]

This is how automated cars should be when they communicate to each other to avoid crashing and the quickest lane swerving to get to the destination. Hopefully this system will be in our cars eventually.

[MARILYNANDERSON]

Creates efficiency, eliminates workers, inventory and their facilities, reduces damage and liabilities, reduces transportstion costs, improves security and supply line controls, a win win.

[beastcameron]

POV: you came here after Tom Scott’s video

[Delta-X-Ray]

What if you wanted to add another grocery items or cancel it. And the paid was already made? How would that be process if there was a return of 1 item or an additional item to be included?