Boxed builds autonomous carts to improve warehouse efficiency
Boxed has developed its own autonomous ground vehicle to improve picking efficiency within its fulfilment centres. Founded in 2013, Boxed specialises in bulk discounts for online shoppers, offering next-day delivery and no membership fees.
Its autonomous ground vehicle (AGV) prototype has only recently been built.
Chief Technology Officer Will Fong, said: “We spent the early part of 2017 having one of our engineers prove out the core concepts.
“Then in July we decided, let’s staff this thing and do it ourselves using open source software. In 90 days we came up with a prototype. It was a very short development cycle.”
The AGV is able to deliver picked orders to pack stations, increasing efficiency. It is currently being tested at a Boxed fulfilment centre in Union, New Jersey.
Fong said: “The AGV is doing what conveyors do, bringing items to the pick zone. The cart comes up and a picker puts on items and sends it on to its next destination.
“When we roll it out and deploy it after testing and iterations, our goal is to increase picks per hour per picker by 80%.”
Boxed plans to deploy up to 40 units at each of its three other fulfilment centres (in Georgia, Nevada and Texas) in 2018.
