Inside the state of warehouse automation
John Santagate, Vice President of Robotics at Körber Supply Chain, discusses the integration of mobile robots in warehouses, highlighting the shift toward serving SMBs and the emerging viability of autonomous forklifts and humanoids like Agility Robotics' Digit. Peter Chen, Co-Founder and CEO of Covariant, explains their robotics foundation model approach, detailing how they leverage data from customers like Autogroup to improve AI performance and offer a simplified 'Covariant One' as-a-service pricing model. The episode covers the strategic decisions behind partnering with vendors like Locust Robotics and KUKA, and the economic arguments for Robotics as a Service (RAS) over traditional Capex models in warehouse automation.