BOSTON – Alert Innnovation today announced a partnership Japan-based Murata Machinery, aka Muratec, to collaborate on the development and commercialization of Alert’s Alphabot material handling technology. The partnership will focus on Muratec adapting and selling the technology to support applications beyond Alert Innovation’s focus on transforming grocery retail, the companies said in a statement.

“We developed the Alphabot technology to solve arguably the most difficult challenge in any industry, namely automating the supermarket,” said John Lert, founder and CEO at Alert Innovation. “In solving that problem, we have created a technology that will be the best-in-class solution for a broad array of automation problems as well. Our partnership with Murata makes it possible for companies other than food retailers to benefit from this breakthrough technology, and it will also make both Muratec and Alert Innovation stronger companies in the process.”

The company’s Alphabot robots can navigate three-dimensional structures, and can power retail applications ranging from store-level micro-fulfillment systems to massive e-commerce fulfillment centers, as well as applications in factory and hospital automation, the companies said. Alert Innovation said the system “is the most capital-efficient and broadly scalable each picking technology ever developed.”

“We believe the flexible mobile robotics solution that Alert Innovation has pioneered in the United States will provide distinct advantages for our customers with regard to storage density, cost efficiency and high reliability with no single point of failure,” said Toshihiko Ishiyama, managing director of Muratec.

Alert Innovation, founded in 2013, aims to transform how people shop and how retailers operate. The company has brought to market the Alphabot Automated Storage and Retrieval System and Automated Each-Picking System, and is creating a new kind of automated supermarket called Novastore. The company was named as part of the “Companies We’re Watching” in this year’s RBR50 2019 awards. Muratec’s automated material handling systems have assisted more than 5,000 companies in creating efficient storage and shipping systems for more than 50 years.