WALTHAM, Mass. – Vecna Robotics announced today it is collaborating with UniCarriers Americas, a division of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, to create a line of autonomous material handling vehicles for warehouses, distribution centers, and manufacturing environments.
Vecna is integrating its autonomous navigation technology, learning algorithms and workflow orchestration systems into the UCA vehicles, turning them into autonomous mobile robots that can move bulk materials through dynamic warehouse environments. In addition, the new line will include autonomous tuggers and lift trucks that could support vertical and horizontal movements of materials up to 10,000 pounds. Renderings of the new autonomous pallet jack will be on display at the company’s new headquarters, which opens officially on Thursday, Sept. 26.
Michael Baier, Vecna Robotics
“Vecna Robotics’ collaboration with UCA has come at the perfect time,” said Michael Baier, Director of Hardware Engineering for Vecna Robotics. “Our customer base is rapidly expanding. Companies are no longer asking themselves if they should automate, they are now looking at when to automate and the sooner, the better. Partnering with an industrial vehicle design expert like UCA helps us provide our customers with exceptional products and meet demand without skipping a beat.”
The fleet will also feature Vecna Robotic pivot.al orchestration system. Pivot.al is an AI-based fleet manager that distributes and redistributes work amongst humans, robots, and standard automation based on capabilities, location, and operational priorities. Pivot.al redesigns workflows, mixing and matching assignments based on the unique capabilities of humans and robots in real-time to ensure current operational processes align with current operational needs.
“Customer’s expectations are changing too fast. Companies that restrict themselves to a specific workflow, robot or AGV are not optimizing productivity efficiently,” said Brian Markison, Senior Director of National Accounts and AGV Sale at UCA. “This strategic partnership helps Vecna Robotics and UCA reach a very important shared objective – providing customers flexible and cost-efficient material handling solutions that reliably gets goods out the door no matter how demand or markets change.”
