Cohesio Group, a robotics and voice technology integrator, is bringing autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) into Australia and New Zealand from two US companies – Massachusetts-based warehouse robotics firm Locus Robotics and California-based Fetch Robotics.
 
“Locus Robotics is thrilled to partner with Cohesio Group, a pioneer in the logistics sector that shares our commitment of bringing highly effective, scalable and efficiency-driving solutions to warehouse operators worldwide,” said Rick Faulk, CEO of Locus Robotics. “This partnership enables us to bring Locus to a greater number of retail and 3PL customers in the Australia and New Zealand region, who are under tremendous pressure to meet increasing demand in today’s booming ecommerce market. We look forward to working together to deliver cutting-edge robotic technology that will drive significant operational efficiency and productivity gains.”
 
The partnership makes Cohesio a licensed reseller of Locus’ AMRs, enabling Cohesio to manage installation, training and support for shared customers in Apac. Cohesio is a subsidiary of German technology group Körber and will soon change its name to Körber Supply Chain.
 
“We have been exploring ways to broaden our portfolio and service offering in the robotics and AMR space,” said Nishan Wijemanne, CEO of Cohesio Group. “We know that many retailers and logistics providers are experiencing a surge in ecommerce demand and therefore having to re-think their operations. With this new partnership, we can add value to our clients and offer further AMRs and technology that can help them to meet this increase in demand.”
 
Locus Robotics is a robotics fulfilment provider for retailers and third-party logistics (3PL) operators worldwide. Its collaborative robots work safely with human employees, driving 200-300% productivity increases to help retail companies and 3PL providers meet higher volume and increasing consumer demand for ecommerce, retail, omnichannel and manufacturing order fulfilment.
 
“Locus Robotics is a known leader in AMRs, and will be of great benefit to players in the Apac market,” said Wijemanne. “This new partnership will allow us to continue delivering cutting-edge solutions to our customers that improve efficiency and productivity. Alongside our enterprise-grade voice picking technology, Android Voice and AMR, this new product offering will allow us to work with our customer to create even greater efficiencies as demand and pressure on logistics and retail continues.”
 
Cohesio will also collaborate with Fetch Robotics to help retailers and logistics providers in the Asia Pacific deliver automation through flexible and scalable AMRs.
 
Formed in 2014, the California-based intralogistics automation company pioneered the world’s first cloud robotics platform for delivering on-demand automation in any facility. Fetch Robotics provides a cloud robotics platform that autonomously moves and tracks virtually anything in any warehouse or manufacturing environment ranging from parts as small as a transistor to pallets weighing 1500kg.
 
Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Fetch Robotics provides autonomous mobile robots that deploy in hours as opposed to days or weeks.
 
In Asia Pacific, the industrial robotics market is expected to grow by more than 13 per cent and is set to reach AU$151bn by 2026. Increasing customer demand is a major driving factor in this, and Cohesio Group has been at the centre of major automation deployments in the Asia Pacific region.
 
“Fetch Robotics is a market leader in automation,” said Wijemanne.” At Cohesio we always want to offer our clients the very best and latest technology in automation and have therefore made the decision to broaden our portfolio in partnering with Fetch Robotics. We know the demand for automation in this region is growing, and we want to ensure we can offer a full range of products and services to our customers to help them meet this challenging demand.”
 
Melonee Wise, CEO of Fetch Robotics, added: “We are excited to partner with Cohesio Group. We know that Cohesio has a reputation in this region for working closely with its customers to establish flexible and agile automation. In Cohesio, we have found a partner who is pushing the boundaries of what is possible in automation and technology and is committed to innovation across the entire supply chain. For this reason, we are very excited to see what we can achieve together in the fast-growing Asia Pacific ecommerce market.”
 
Cohesio Group was acquired by international logistics giant Körber in September last year. It was recently announced that Cohesio would join eleven other sister companies under the umbrella Körber Supply Chain as part of a global rebrand.