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Kiva mobile robots and mini shelves in a warehouse. Source: Kiva Systems / Logistics Hall of Fame
In 2003, Mick Mountz, Dr. Peter Wurman, and Prof. Raffaello D’Andrea invented a mobile robot for fulfillment in intralogistics, founded Kiva Systems, and created a category of automation that has grown over the past two decades. A jury has voted to recognize their innovation by inducting them into the Logistics Hall of Fame.
“Mountz, Wurman, and D’Andrea can claim to have made the goods-to-person picking concept the global standard for many e-commerce and omnichannel processes,” said Anita Wuermser, executive jury chairwoman of the Logistics Hall of Fame. “For many companies, mobile robotic fulfillment systems are the technological basis for same-day delivery as we know it today.”
“You have to find a real business problem first,” observed Wurman. “Start-ups that have just a technology to sell very rarely work. Mick saw a real business problem. He did not know exactly how to solve it but thought that robotics could be the answer. Then Raffaello joined him, and our job was to find the specific form of those answers and make the technologies work for Kiva Systems.”
The expert jury included 70 members from business, science, politics, and the media in 13 nations. The Ismaning, Germany-based Logistics Hall of Fame’s stated goal is to document industry milestones and honor the people who have contributed to business and society.
Webvan demise led to the rise of robotic fulfillment
“The demise of e-commerce provider Webvan in the USA in 2001 was also the birth of the idea of the mobile robotic fulfillment system,” noted the Logistics Hall of Fame.
Mountz attributed the decline of his former employer to inflexible intralogistics systems and high order-fulfillment costs. He decided develop a method for picking, packing, and shipping orders that could deliver any item to any logistics employee at any time.
“At the time, the company was using an approximately 28,000 sq. m [301,000 sq. ft.] warehouse, plus miles and miles of conveyors, carousel pods and manual pick carts,” recalled Mountz. “The goal was to get the customers merchandise into totes. In some zones, they would have humans putting totes onto carts and walking up and down aisles.”
Kiva founders (from left) Peter Wurman, Mick Mountz, and Raffaelo D’Andrea. Source: Logistics Hall of Fame.
To realize his idea, Mountz sought the help of artificial intelligence and software expert Wurman and robotics and AI pioneer D’Andrea. They founded Distrobot in 2003, and it became Kiva Systems LLC in 2005. Mountz became the company‘s CEO, while Wurman and D’Andrea the co-chief technology officers.
Together, they developed the Kiva Mobile Robotic Fulfillment System (U.S. Patent No. 8,649,899). The system used autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) to ensure the continuous movement of stock on small shelves between the storage areas and picking stations. In traditional logistics centers, people walk up to 15 km (9.3 mi.) a day to search for products on shelves.
With Kiva’s fulfillment system, inventory was consolidated in the middle of the warehouse instead. The workers were located at picking stations around the perimeter.
Once an order was received, the mobile robots retrieved the right mini-shelf and brought it to an employee who placed the products in a shipping carton. The setup was designed to scale up quickly and cheaply, and its return on investment (ROI) was usually less than two years.
Long walking distances and transport by forklift trucks, where there is always a risk of accidents, are now a thing of the past in many retail warehouses, said the Logistics Hall of Fame.
Kiva Systems developed end-to-end system
Kiva Systems found success with its cost-effective equipment and algorithms, both on the robots and on servers. Its AMRs navigated safely around distribution centers with sensor fusion of data from sources such as camera and inertial sensors to determine the robot’s position in the warehouse.
“That specific mobile robot that we needed did not exist at the time,” said Mountz. “We also took some principles from my time at Apple: Make a solution from end to end. Then you can control that everything works together seamlessly.”
“We developed the robot, the software which tells it where to go, the operator touchscreen, and plant manager interface,” he said. “We needed to make sure it works. Because we put something completely new into the customers´ warehouses, and we guaranteed the results.”
The robots executed missions orchestrated through wireless communications to ensure that no collisions would occur. Cloud-based software ensured that the system optimized the use of the worker’s and robot’s time.
With 275 employees, Kiva Systems was a fully vertically integrated company, producing all hardware and software, including two different robot models. One could carry loads of up to 450 kg (992 lb.) , and the other loads of up to 1,400 kg (3,086.4 lb.).
By 2012, Kiva’s orange robots were in use at dozens of customers, including Walgreens, Staples, and The Gap, and it made $100 million in shipments. Its largest customer became Amazon, which acquired the company in March 2012 for $775 million.
In August 2015, the company changed its name from Kiva to Amazon Robotics LLC. By 2024, the company is approaching 800,000 AMRs deployed across the e-commerce giant’s warehouses worldwide.
“Estimates are that Kiva/Amazon Robotics is saving Amazon $10 billion per year, more than 10 times what Amazon acquired Kiva for,” D’Andrea said. “Every month, Kiva pays for itself. That’s a great investment.”
Trio and its technology go on to further success
While Amazon took the system that Mountz, Wurman, and D’Andrea developed off the market, other logistics and robotics companies developed similar robots and more over the past decade. Dozens of companies produce AMRs, including ABB, Agilox, Locus Robotics, Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR), OMRON, and OTTO Motors.
The global installed base of AMRs will surpass 500,000 by 2030, predicted ABI Research.
“Mobile robots may not replace all conveyors, but they are a good alternative, providing a cost-effective, much more flexible solution,” noted Wurman. “Companies can start small with a few robots and then grow the system as their business grow.”
Today, Mountz is a board member at the MIT Corp., The Engine Accelerator, and inventory drone provider Verity. Wurman is executive director at Sony AI. D`Andrea is the founder, chair, and CEO of Verity, as well as a professor at ETH Zurich.
“What really excites me about the future is the day when we will be able to create machines that are as robust and versatile as biology,” D’Andrea said. “We have no idea of how to do this today. Until then, robot companies will have to focus on the low-hanging fruits, and there aren’t many of them. Examples are Kiva Systems with mobile robots, iRobot with the Roomba, and — hopefully, still too early to claim victory — Verity with mobile intelligence.”
The trio, which is already in the National Inventors Hall of Fame, will be officially inducted into the Logistics Hall of Fame at a gala reception on Dec. 5 at the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport in Berlin. So far, 44 logistics experts, including the founders of Kiva Systems, have made it into the Logistics Hall of Fame.
The organization also presents the Logistics Leader of the Year Award to pacesetters in logistics, supported by donor is STILL GmbH. In addition, the hall of fame recognizes innovative logistics projects by humanitarian organizations with the Lynn C. Fritz Medal for Excellence in Humanitarian Logistics, sponsored by the Fritz Institute.
Dr. Volker Wissing, federal minister for digital and transport for Germany, is patron of the non-profit initiative, which has numerous corporate and association sponsors.