Overheard: Robots take over distribution centers at Walgreens and Staples

Margaret Rouse Profile: Margaret Rouse

The scene is a constant swirl of activity, like a ballroom dance, with dozens of robots and pods in motion at any one time. APICS The Association for Operations Management, Dance of the Bots

Robots move completed orders to a staging area. When the truck is ready, all the pods that have completed orders for that destination get up and move to the loading dock.

Check out this video from AT&T TV. You’re watching Kiva Systems robots. The little orange roomba-like robots follow adhesive bar codes in a high density grid pattern on the floor. They communicate with a centralized server in a big game of “Mother May I?”

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