Take a close look at this photograph for this is the future of shopping.
Located in Andover, Wiltshire, UK online grocer Ocado Group PLC’s (LON:OCDO) newest automated warehouse is swarmed with robots, rushing through the three-storey high aluminium grid containing stacks of white storage crates of grocery items.
The gird makes the best possible use of any available space, with robots moving at 4 metres per second with 5mm between them, allowing an average order of 50 items to be picked and packed in just five minutes.
Paul Clarke, chief executive officer of Ocado, said: “We gonna build loads of these around the world both for ourselves and our platform customers.”
The whole system is controlled via a 4G network with robots collaborating as a swarm to pick an order of over 50 items in just a few minutes.
CEO Clarke says one of the biggest advantages of the system is that the grid can accommodate individual needs: “You can start smaller with your grid and then add more robots and grids as your requirements grow.”
As retailers around the world try to find the best possible solution for picking online grocery orders, Ocado has recently signed international partnerships.
Ocado landed a deal to develop the online delivery service and mobile app for Sweden grocery retailer ICA Group, signed a deal with Canada’s second largest food retailer, Sobeys Inc and partnership agreement with Groupe Casino, to develop Ocado Smart Platform in France.