Chinese warehouse robot maker Hai Robotics is pairing up with French logistics engineering company Savoye so its warehousing technology can find new markets in Europe and beyond.

Hai launched the first autonomous case-handling robot (ACR) Haipick in 2015 and has made it a commercial success with a slew of customer recognition. The robot has stood out from similar mobile robots with its ability to carry cartons as well as individual totes and bring multiple cases to pickers or conveyors in one movement.

The Haipick ACR system uses autonomous order-picking robots that pick and place totes or cartons on storage shelves up to five to seven metres high and are able to carry up to eight loads to feed goods-to-person picking stations continuously. This works in environments down to -10˚C.

“We believe that leveraging Haipick with Savoye’s expertise in supply chain and warehouse automation, this partnership will provide a set of unique opportunities for both of us,” said Kane Luo, vice president of sales at Hai Robotics. “We are excited to partner with Savoye, and we are eager to explore this partnership to its full potential.”

Savoye has networks of global customers and been widely recognised for its shuttle-based X-PTS storage system.

Laurent Bollereau, strategy engineering director at Savoye, said Haipick was “perfectly suited to smaller flow contexts”. He added: “The partnership with Hai Robotics allows us to ideally complement our own range for goods-to-person order preparation. Indeed, our X-PTS technology is more particularly relevant to meet high-performance needs and large volumes of orders to be processed.”

Haipick is seeing a fast-expanding global presence in the warehousing logistics sector. In the latest episode, it was deployed to handle picking and dispatch orders at Australia’s biggest online book retailer Booktopia’s 14,000m² distribution centre at Lidcombe, New South Wales, boosting its efficiency by 800%.

The Haipick ACR system can help realise warehouse automation in just a week, increase storage density by 80 to 130%, and improve staffs’ work efficiency by three to four times, claims the company. It has been applied in sectors of ecommerce, 3PL, apparel, electronics, energy, manufacturing, medicine and others.

Founded in 2016 with headquarters in Shenzhen, China, Hai Robotics has more than 1000 staff with branch offices in Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, USA and the Netherlands, serving clients from over 30 countries and regions. In March 2021, it secured a series B+ funding of $15m.