Kroger partner buys two U.S. robotic start-ups

Ocado Group, the U.K. online grocer and automated fulfillment center partner of Kroger Co., is acquiring two U.S. start-ups to  accelerate the delivery of robotic picking.

Ocado has agreed to acquire San Francisco-based Kindred Systems and Las Vegas-based Haddington Dynamics for $262 million and $25 million, respectively. It said the deals would enhance its robotic manipulation capabilities and accelerate the commercial delivery of robotic picking for Ocado Smart Platform clients. Kroger entered into an agreement with Ocado in 2018 to develop 20 highly automated grocery fulfillment centers throughout the U.S. 

“In our mission to solve one of the world’s hardest challenges in robotics, the picking and packing of groceries, we’re acquiring two leading robotics companies,” Ocado stated in an announcement.  

Kindred is described as an advanced AI-powered robotics company that designs, supplies and services sophisticated piece-picking robots for e-commerce and order fulfillment. The company is said to be one of the first to use deep reinforcement learning, a form of artificial intelligence that improves the learning process of handling disparate items like those in grocery.

“Their robotic picking solution is proven, currently live for customers within the general merchandise and logistics sectors,” Ocada stated. “This represents a large and fast-growing new segment for Ocado Group.”

Haddington is a research and development company that specializes  in the design and manufacture of highly dextrous, lightweight, low-cost robotic arms. 

"We consider the opportunities for robotic manipulation solutions to be significant, both for Ocado Smart Platform clients and across the fast-growing online retail and logistics sectors,” said Ocado CEO Tim Steiner. “Ocado has made meaningful progress in developing the machine learning, computer vision and engineering systems required for the robotic picking solutions that are currently in production at our Customer Fulfilment Centre in Erith (southeast of London). Given the market opportunity we want to accelerate the development of our systems, including improving their speed, accuracy, product range and economics.”