Ocado’s Porter AMR can automate pallet and cage dealing with and full-case success duties, together with choosing, cross-dock, putaway and stock strikes. | Supply: Ocado
Ocado Clever Automation (OIA), a part of Ocado Group, launched Porter AMR at ProMat 2025 this week.
Porter is a pallet-moving autonomous cellular robotic (AMR) that navigates warehouses to automate a number of warehouse workflows corresponding to cross-docking, bulk-item choosing, putaway, and pallet motion.
“Porter from OIA automates low-value, guide duties and fosters a extra productive office by supporting associates, rising case choosing charges, and automating the motion of excessive volumes of stock,” mentioned Jeff Larson, Director of Options Design for Ocado Cell Robotic System at OIA. “Corporations in third-party logistics, retail, e-commerce, distribution, and healthcare can maximize warehouse productiveness and scale operations up or down simply with out relying on guide forklifts and costly licensed forklift drivers.”
The corporate’s patented system-directed software program intelligently orchestrates every Porter autonomous pallet-moving robotic, or an entire fleet of them, to scale back journey occasions and keep away from warehouse congestion. In the meantime, Ocado’s Achievement Execution System (FES) teams orders to maximise case choosing, optimize route plans, and cut back steps between picks. In the meantime, machine studying prioritizes and plans pallet stacking intelligently to keep away from product harm.
Ocado acquired its begin creating automated storage and retrieval techniques (ASRS) for the grocery trade. In recent times, nonetheless, the firm has been making an attempt to carry extra robots into the fold and increase its operations to new industries.
In July 2023, Ocado acquired AMR maker 6 River Methods from Shopify, including AMRs to its portfolio for the primary time. The corporate paid simply $12.7 million to accumulate 6 River Methods. For comparability, Shopify paid $450 million to accumulate 6 River Methods in September 2019. In 2020, Ocado acquired two U.S.-based robotics firms for $287 million.
Porter’s key options
Porter picks, strikes, and locations pallets instantly from the ground with precision, even when they’re aligned back-to-back. It acknowledges its environment to securely deal with and transport heavy masses autonomously and may be configured to deal with cages, rising flexibility and increasing success capabilities.
Porter AMR options embrace:
- An onboard touchscreen with a stay front-camera view, enabling associates to securely maneuver Porter in guide mode.
- A 3,300-pound (1,500 kilograms) payload capability to move densely packed pallets.
- The power to move one pallet or two roll cages on a single journey.
- Dynamic task-switching software program that seamlessly transitions Porter between stock motion and case-picking duties as operational wants evolve.
- Superior built-in sensors to detect, acknowledge and deal with any open or closed commonplace pallet sorts, together with Commonwealth Dealing with Gear Pool (CHEP), Grocery Producers Affiliation (GMA) and European Pallet Affiliation e.V.(EPAL) pallets.
- A slim, counterbalance-free design with a decent turning radius to function in pallet lanes as slender as 51 inches (1.3 meters) vast.
The corporate is exhibiting Porter at ProMat this week in Sales space S2712.
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Porter integrates with warehouse operations
Porter can combine with current wall-to-wall success platforms, Warehouse Execution Methods (WES), Warehouse Management Methods (WCS), and Warehouse Administration Methods (WMS), to prioritize duties with minimal disruption and improve warehouse productiveness. These techniques can collaborate to select and go advanced orders throughout a number of robots, automate inbound and outbound pallet motion from an ASRS from Ocado or different Unique Gear Producers (OEMs), and hook up with robotic arms to ship or choose pallets from palletizing and depalletizing areas.
Moreover, Porter’s superior imaginative and prescient system allows it to navigate safely and autonomously with out requiring infrastructure modifications or guide intervention. Shifting at speeds of as much as 4.5 miles per hour, the AMR dynamically adjusts its velocity when detecting folks or tools within the space, making certain office security.
Porter intelligently parallel parks itself in aisles to scale back congestion, conserving operations seamless for each robots and human associates. Porter AMR is a part of the Ocado Cell Robotic System (OMRS), a complicated success system for clever workflow orchestration.
