Array uses a LocusBot designed to pick from and to bins from warehouse shelving. Source: Locus Robotics
CHICAGO — Locus Robotics is known for its goods-to-person automation, in which mobile robots assist human pickers. At ProMat yesterday, the company gave a sneak peek of Locus Array, a system using artificial intelligence and robots for high-density storage and throughput. “We’ve been working on this for the past several years,” said Rick Faulk, CEO of Locus Robotics. “Our zero-touch fulfillment automates induction, and double-deep storage covers 100% of SKUs.” The Wilmington, Mass.-based company has developed a new magazine tower that can retrieve multiple orders from shelving into bins or cartons that can be subdivided for further efficiency.
Locus Array uses AMRs, arms for efficient retrieval
For Array, Locus Robotics combined an autonomous mobile robot (AMR) with a tower and a custom-developed, vision-guided picking arm. The AMR has omnidirectional wheels similar to Vector, which the company acquired with Waypoint Robotics, to make tight turns and slide next shelving on either side of an aisle.
“It can pull from a conveyor or flow rack, pick most of an order, and then hand off items to be picked with Origin or Vector,” said Mike Johnson, president of Locus Robotics. “The robot can pick to three different tote sizes for maximum density with 99.9% accuracy.”
Array’s robotic picking arm, which uses suction cup end effectors, can pick from either side of a very narrow aisle, explained Faulk. Racks up to 10 ft. (3 m) high add flexible, high-density storage and a third dimension to Locus’ robotic picking, not unlike an automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS).
“Healthcare, industrial, retail, and e-commerce all have the same problems with throughput and labor shortages. We can now automate everything from induction and putaway to decant for packout,” he told The Robot Report during an exclusive media preview. “It can eliminate 90% of labor, and our goal is to empty the parking lots of all the warehouses around the world.”
Locus has already assisted with more than 4 billion picks, and the company was a 2024 RBR50 Robotics Innovation Award honoree.
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LocusOne orchestrates fulfillment
As with Locus Robotics’ existing goods-to-person (G2P) picking, LocusOne‘s AI sequences picking workflows for maximum efficiency, noted Kait Peterson, vice president of product marketing at Locus.
“We’re creating a new category of robot-to-goods, or R2G, picking,” she said.
LocusOne already had the order logic and required very few modifications for Array, added Faulk.
“This has been part of the company’s vision since it was founded, and our engineers have worked on this since September,” he said. “By reducing cost per pick, we can deliver a fast ROI [return on investment].”
Faulk added that mobile manipulator Array can be quickly and easily integrated with existing warehouses and Locus’ AMRs, allowing scalable deployments in weeks rather than months. It can operate 24/7 to meet increasing fulfillment demands, he said.
According to Locus, the product will be available for ordering later this year, and will start shipping in early 2026.
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