How Climbing Autonomous Mobile Robots Are Impacting Warehouse Automation

February has certainly been a very interesting month for the warehouse automation industry. In just a month, we’ve seen notable developments, with momentum building around new product launches revolves around a certain theme:

• In the first week of February, Brightpick introduced the Brightpick Giraffe, a robotic solution designed for automated case and tote picking in fulfillment centers. Unlike traditional load-bearing AMRs that transport goods at ground level, Giraffe operates to retrieve totes from taller racks, enabling end-to-end automation of picking and replenishment tasks while complementing Brightpick’s Autopicker robots.

• That same week, Exotec unveiled the next generation of its Skypod system, enhancing its original design with the goal of improving both storage density and order fulfillment speed. This innovation caters to warehouses seeking higher throughput without significant infrastructure overhauls.

•  Then just before the month ended, Hai Robotics launched the HaiPick Climb, taking a different approach from its conventional product line. While Hai Robotics’ existing solutions focus on tote-based autonomous picking at various rack heights, HaiPick Climb introduces a new capability: enabling robots to climb vertically to access storage locations without requiring extensive fixed infrastructure. This provides greater flexibility for dynamic warehouse layouts.

A common theme among these solutions is their focus on addressing storage density and throughput requirements. Traditionally, in the warehouse automation space, AS/RS (Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems) are the main solutions for high throughput and storage density requirements. These fixed infrastructure systems use automated cranes, shuttles, and conveyors to retrieve and store items in high-density vertical racks, offering optimal storage utilization. However, AS/RS solutions come with the limitation of rigid infrastructure, lacking the flexibility of more dynamic solutions.

In contrast, traditional load-bearing AMRs (Autonomous Mobile Robots) focus on scalability, flexibility, and adaptivity. They can adjust to varying warehouse layouts and address labor shortages, improving consistency in chaotic environments. They offer fleet scalability to accommodate shifting demands, but their ground-level operation generally do not address the vertical storage challenges present in many modern warehouses.

This is where Mobile AS/RS becomes particularly interesting. Solutions like Hai Robotics’ ACR and Brightpick Giraffe combine the best of both worlds by addressing storage density and throughput while retaining the flexibility and scalability of AMRs. These mobile robots can reach higher rack levels, optimizing both storage utilization and order fulfillment.

In addition, climbing AMRs, such as Exotec’s Skypod and HaiPick Climb, take this concept even further by enabling robots to climb vertically. This bridges the gap between the flexibility of AMRs and the high storage density of AS/RS solutions, presenting an exciting opportunity in what could be considered a blue-ocean market—a space with relatively few competitors so far, offering room for innovation and growth.

While long-term adoption of climbing AMR systems is still uncertain, the increasing need to maximize warehouse space utilization suggests a promising future for these technologies. The ability to integrate vertical access with mobility is likely to open new possibilities for modern warehouse operations. ARC will be conducting a market investigation into the mobile warehouse robotics marketplace and will be expanding its coverage to include new market segments such as traditional robot sale versus robotics-as-a-service (RaaS), navigation technology, form factor including humanoid, by application, and by operational environment. ARC will also be launching a new market investigation into the market for mobile robotic ASRS including coverage of companies such as AutoStore, Exotec, Fabric, Geek+, Hai Robotics, Ocado, Swisslog, and Symbotic, among others.

By Fox Chen – ARC Research Analyst – Fox’s primary focus at ARC is tracking and analyzing technology markets and industries in Southeast Asia and Australia. He also develops and authors global market research studies on selected industrial automation and software technologies.

Prior to joining ARC, Fox was in the intellectual property (IP) industry for more than seven years. At Panasonic, he supported different IP functions, primarily in the area of LTE and H.264 video codec, as a patent analyst. He then ventured into the industrial automation space with Yokogawa Electric Asia, working as a patent engineer to support Yokogawa’s digitalization journey through IP.

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