A British grocery e-retailer has acquired two U.S. robotics firms in an effort to improve its warehouse automation systems.
Ocado officials said although it has made significant in-house strides in the development of robotic picking and packing, that technology remains one of the world’s toughest robotics and engineering challenges. The company hopes the addition of Kindred Systems and Haddington Dynamics will help solve it.
Kindred, founded in 2014 with offices in San Francisco and Toronto, produces artificial intelligence-powered picking robots for e-commerce operations, including a portfolio of proprietary machine learning and motion control technology. Ocado will pay $262 million for the company, which currently employs about 90 people and expects 180 of its robots to be deployed by the end of this year.
Haddington, formed in 2015 and based in Las Vegas, makes a low-cost robotic arm using 3D printing and will be acquired for $25 million. The company’s current customers include NASA and DuPont, but Ocado officials said the highly dexterous arm is particularly well-suited to e-commerce groceries.
In addition to its e-commerce platform and U.K. grocery business — the largest of its kind in the world — Ocado has formed partnerships with eight other retail partners, including Kroger, the U.S.’s largest supermarket chain. The company reportedly saw significant growth from online sales amid the coronavirus pandemic.
