Symbotic Inc. (Symbotic) operates as an automation technology company.
The company engages in developing, commercializing, and deploying innovative, comprehensive technology solutions that dramatically improve supply chain operations. The company automates the processing of pallets and cases in large warehouses or distribution centers for some of the largest retail and wholesale companies in the world. Its supply chain automation system (System) enhances operations at the front end of the suppl...
Symbotic Inc. (Symbotic) operates as an automation technology company.
The company engages in developing, commercializing, and deploying innovative, comprehensive technology solutions that dramatically improve supply chain operations. The company automates the processing of pallets and cases in large warehouses or distribution centers for some of the largest retail and wholesale companies in the world. Its supply chain automation system (System) enhances operations at the front end of the supply chain, and therefore benefit all supply partners further down the chain, irrespective of fulfillment strategy.
Symbotic’s intellectual property is protected by a portfolio of over 700 issued and/or pending patents. The company’s revolutionary system accelerates the movement of goods through the supply chain, improves stock keeping unit (SKU) agility, fulfills orders with 99.9999% accuracy, and does this all with less inventory and operating cost. The underlying architecture of the company’s system differentiates it from everyone else in the marketplace. The system uses Symbots which are high-speed, fully autonomous mobile robots that travel up to 25 miles-per-hour (mph). The Symbots are controlled by the company’s artificial intelligence (A.I.) enabled software to move goods through its proprietary storage or ‘buffering’ structure.
The company’s proprietary modular applications, such as its inbound sorting and outbound palletizing cells, plug into its system to achieve compelling, real world supply chain improvements at scale. The company is developing other modular applications that will allow its customers to support all omni-channel strategies, such as brick-and-mortar retail and e-commerce with in-store pickup or home delivery, from a single centralized warehouse/fulfillment facility.
The company’s system varies in size and price. A system can be as small as a football field (i.e., 48,000 square feet), which can serve 25 or more stores and can scale to meet the needs of the world’s largest retailers. The company’s system modular design and greater storage density enables installation in existing, and active warehouses, with limited interruption to ongoing operations.
The company’s system separates inbound freight (i.e., divide it into a common unit) from pallets-to-cases and cases-to-items (in development of its second generation, referred to as its Breakpack system), digitize the attributes of these units without re-labeling, and move the units to buffering in their original (or native) packaging with bottom lift technology on the company’s autonomous mobile robots instead of re-transferring goods to trays, shuttles, or cranes. As the distribution center receives replenishment orders from stores, its autonomous robots retrieve the desired units in specified sequence to facilitate orderly fulfillment.
The company’s system can also build pallets autonomously. The system can build pallets with goods ordered from a specific store and specific aisle. This facilitates rapid and sequential provisioning of the goods from the pallets to a specific store and a specific shelf (i.e., store plan-o-grammed pallets). The system also builds the pallets with improved structural integrity, which in turn leads to denser, taller pallets that improve truck packing density while reducing product damage.
The company's systems are deployed in the warehouses of a number of the world's largest retailers, including Walmart, wholesale distributors, including C&S Wholesale Grocers, and warehouse as a service providers, including GreenBox.
System Overview
The company’s system manages every aspect of warehouse logistics, from the time merchandise is off-loaded from a producer’s truck or container until that merchandise is ready to be delivered to a store, pick-up location, or individual. The company’s system has an approximate useful life of 25 to 30 years and is so space efficient that it can be installed in phases in operating warehouses with minimal impact to operations. The system consists of inbound de-palletizing cells utilizing robotic arms, a storage structure, autonomous mobile robots that handle product, outbound palletizing cells using robotic arms, and software that coordinates and optimizes the movements of all the hardware.
Unique System Architecture
The company’s innovative system architecture differentiates its system from alternative warehouse systems. The pillars of the company’s architecture combine synergistically to deliver the benefits of its solution. The pillars are:
A.I.-Powered Software: The company’s system is enhanced by its A.I.-enabled autonomous software. The company define A.I. as technology that enables computers and machines to simulate human learning, comprehension, problem solving, decision making, creativity, and autonomy. Applications and devices equipped with A.I. can see and identify objects. They can understand and respond to human language. They can learn from new information and experience. They can make detailed recommendations to users and experts. They can act independently, replacing the need for human intelligence or intervention.
Singulating: Singulating goods is the process of dividing quantities of goods to the lowest common fulfillment unit (e.g., from pallets-to-cases and cases-to-items). The company’s case-based system separates all incoming pallets to the case level. The company’s Breakpack system separates all cases to the each (or items) level to handle toted items in its system just like the company handle cases. Competing warehouse systems handle pallets and more frequently partial pallets of goods. Pallets and partial pallets represent an increased level of on hand inventory and partial pallets leave unused volume within the warehouse. By managing goods at the case and toted item level, rather than at the pallet level, the company’s system removes unused space from the distribution center, allowing merchandise to be stored more densely and increasing the speed of product throughput. These space saving efforts are increased by the storage density of its system, which allows the company to retrofit its system into its customers’ existing warehouse operations without interrupting ongoing supply chain operations or requiring capital to build new greenfield warehouse space.
Dynamic Storage: The company’s system function is analogous to that of a random-access computer hard drive. By effectively ‘digitizing’ each individual case and toted item and spreading them throughout the storage structure, the company creates optionality for its picking and routing optimization algorithms. Merchandise is opportunistically placed throughout the storage structure, similar to the way a random-access hard drive handles data. This minimizes movement to increase throughput, enhances SKU agility and reduces the number of autonomous mobile robots required to distribute product.
Autonomous Movement: Fully autonomous A.I.-enabled mobile robots allow the company’s system to have superior flexibility, speed, mobility, and inventory handling capabilities. Like fully autonomous cars operating in a smart city, its robots operate independently but act collectively to transport, sequence, and move cases through a warehouse. The company’s algorithms consider robot proximity, travel distance, and other factors to solve for optimal overall performance while dynamically adjusting as anomalies arise. In addition, because each robot can travel anywhere in a two-dimensional plane and moves like a car that can make radius turns, the company’s robots are comparatively fast, traveling up to 25 miles-per-hour (mph). Faster movement enhances throughput and efficiency by clearing aisles more quickly and allowing for more storage and retrieval transactions per hour compared to tray, shuttle, or crane-based systems. Finally, the company’s use of automation and A.I.-enabled software means its system can approach true ‘lights-out’ operation (100% up-time with zero human intervention).
Original (Native) Package Handling: The company places and picks cases by under picking or lifting them from the bottom using an automated fork system. This unique technique enables the company’s mobile robots to manipulate a wide range of case sizes, types, and weights in a variety of packaging formats. Thus, the company’s system can handle a greater variety of goods in a wide range of verticals. Unlike some of its competitors, the company do not handle goods with grippers, which can crush them, or suction cups, which can drop goods. The company also do not transfer goods to standardized trays, eliminating additional handling of goods. Instead, bottom-lift handling reduces case damage and rejection rates, thereby decreasing waste and cost.
End-to-End Integration: By being an integrated end-to-end system, the company is able to comprehensively change a warehouse and a customer’s supply chain to maximize its efficiency.
System-of-Systems Design: The company’s system-of-systems architecture philosophy eliminates single points of failure, enhancing system resiliency. Utilizing a redundant array of autonomous robots, lifts and palletizing cells, each part of its system is able to assume the task load of another part, if a part fails. In addition, the company’s hardware and software are engineered for rapid serviceability utilizing field replaceable components wherever possible.
Scalable Modularity: The company’s architecture is highly modular and scalable, allowing it to install its system in existing warehouse facilities while achieving full performance benefits. The company is also able to install its system in phases, allowing the existing warehouse facility to continue to operate during the transition to its system. Finally, the company can easily reconfigure and expand its system to accommodate SKU proliferation as its customers’ needs and strategies evolve.
System Functional Flow
The company’s system can uniquely handle homogeneous and heterogeneous palletized and un-palletized goods. Regardless of type of good, the company’s system generally functions as follows:
Palletized Inbound: When pallets reach a warehouse, the pallets are placed into the company’s automated system. The company’s large de-palletizing robotic cells use state of the art vision technology and its proprietary end-of-arm tools to pick up entire layers of goods and transfer them to its ‘singulating’ robots that deconstruct the pallet down to the case level. The company’s singulating robots also use vision technology and other proprietary end-of-arm tools to orient each case optimally for storage and handling in its system’s storage structure. The cases then enter the scan tunnel.
Floor-Loaded Inbound: When un-palletized goods reach a warehouse, such as in traditional international shipping containers where goods are loaded from floor to ceiling without the use of pallets for quick unloading, they are placed into the company’s automated system and the individual cases enter the scan tunnel just like palletized goods.
Scan Tunnel: On the way to the storage structure, each case proceeds through a short scan tunnel where the company’s system uses vision technology and sensors to ‘digitize’ the dimensions and attributes of each inbound case. Simultaneously, the company’s system performs an integrity check of each case to screen for damage. If the case is damaged, it may be compromised as it moves through its system, and it may indicate damaged goods inside the case. Any case that the company’s system determines is non-conforming or damaged is rejected by its system. An associate will either repair the case before re-induction into the system or reject the damaged goods.
Storage Structure: The storage structure, where goods are placed, stored, and retrieved, is consists of a number of levels stacked on top of each other. Each level is approximately three feet tall, allowing a typical thirty-two-foot-tall warehouse to have ten levels of storage which optimizes space utilization. Each level has a transfer deck that spans the width of the structure and connects several dozen aisles that extend horizontally at a 90-degree angle from the transfer deck. The company’s average sized system has 200,000 linear feet of storage. The levels are connected vertically by a series of lifts.
Lifts: Upon exit from the scan tunnel, the case moves to a collection of lifts that function like a bank of elevators in a building. Simultaneously, the company’s A.I.-enabled software determines the optimal location in the structure for storage of that case. When a case reaches the lift to which it is assigned, the lift extends its finger lift and picks up the case. The lift then brings the case to the appropriate level in the structure and places it onto a storage shelf where the case will be picked up by a Symbot. The Symbot will then bring the case to the aisle storage position for that level.
Symbots: Symbots are the company’s fully autonomous mobile goods handling robots. They are powered by rapid-charging ultracapacitors, so charging takes a matter of seconds as the Symbots drive over charge plates integrated into the floor of the storage structure. This eliminates the need for Symbots to come out of service for charging, which allows them to operate all day for weeks at a time. The company’s Symbots are interchangeable and hand off tasks to each other in a live operating system without productivity loss. If a Symbot does need maintenance, an individual Symbot can be removed from the company’s system by remote instruction.
The Symbot lifts each case from the bottom using fingers that extend under the case, rather than gripping and pulling, which enables handling of the case without putting them on trays. Trayless handling allows storage of cases within five millimeters of each other.
The Symbot picks up a case from the lift and enters the transfer deck on its way to the appropriate aisle. The Symbot is routed by the company’s proprietary A.I. software to the aisle and location where a case is to be placed. Once in the appropriate aisle, the Symbot accelerates rapidly up to 25 mph towards the specific location where it has been instructed to place the case.
When the Symbot reaches the appropriate placement location, it extends its finger lift and places the case on the aisle position and is ready for its next task. In a typical size and configuration system, a Symbot can reach any location in the company’s structure and return to its inbound or outbound cells in under four minutes.
Retrieving a case is simply the reverse process of placing a case.
Outbound: The company’s outbound lift retrieves cases delivered by Symbots and transfers them to the outbound level of its system. The company’s software utilizes the Symbots and lifts to sequence cases in an optimal order for outbound processing. The company’s system typically creates a pallet consists of a variety of different goods and SKUs (known as a ‘rainbow pallet’). The company’s system can also create a rainbow pallet based upon a customer’s store plan. Specifically, the rainbow pallet can consist of products for a specific store aisle, which can be delivered directly from a truck to the end of an aisle so that store employees can unpack the cases from the pallet, replenish shelves quickly, and reduce store labor costs.
Palletizing: The company’s system uses A.I.-enabled software that allows it to palletize cases using two robotic arms on opposite sides of a pallet. These two robotic arms work together placing a case onto a pallet in less than three seconds.
Growth Strategy
The key elements of the company’s strategy for growth are to further penetrate customers’ operations; win additional customers in existing verticals; expand into new verticals; expand product offerings; and expand its operations beyond the United States and Canada.
The company is addressing the Warehouse-as-a-Service (WaaS) market through its GreenBox joint venture, which is positioned to leverage its expertise and the technology of its system to capture opportunities, meet evolving customer needs, and drive sustainable value for its shareholders.
Customers
The company has a strong blue chip customer base that includes some of the world’s largest retailers and wholesale grocers, including Walmart (Walmart Inc.), Albertsons, its affiliate C&S Wholesale Grocers (C&S Wholesale Grocers, Inc.), GreenBox, Target, AFS, and UNFI.
Products
The company's system is typically sold in three parts: the initial system sale, software maintenance and support services, and operation services. The Symbotic system is a modular, highly configurable capital asset purchase that the company sells to its customer in the year of deployment. Over the remaining system life, which is typically 25-30 years, the company charges a software maintenance and support fee. Finally, the company provides training and system operation until the customer assumes operational duties. The company's typical deployment model is to build and install the system, operate the system for a limited time, and then transfer daily operation to the customer.
Technologies
The company’s technologies are categorized into both hardware and software components, which work together to deliver the full comprehensive system to its customers. Key elements of the hardware and software components are as follows:
Intelligent Autonomous Mobile Robots: The company’s intelligent, autonomous mobile robots utilize a suite of sensors to handle cases and locate, retrieve, and transport approximately 80% of the SKUs in its customers’ facilities at speeds of up to 25 mph (10 times faster than the average human) with 99.9999% accuracy. The company’s newest version of these robots uses vision technology in addition to its autonomous routing algorithms to achieve optimal speed, safety, and routing.
A.I.–Enabled Software: The company’s system utilizes A.I. technologies in a variety of ways to dynamically achieve optimal performance and improve over time. For example, the company’s system can independently determine the best locations to store inventory in the structure to improve outbound efficiency. In addition, the software enables its autonomous robots to independently place and retrieve various sizes of goods with different package material, make corrections to account for product movement, and efficiently navigate through its system to complete the system’s objectives in the shortest amount of time and at the lowest cost. The company’s software also dynamically responds to changes in inventory availability to fulfill customer orders on time.
By using A.I. tools to process all the data its system is generating, the company’s system is improved by the tasks it performs. This helps it to develop algorithmic innovations that further improve system performance over time.
System Manager: The System Manager balances work across the inbound and outbound cells of the company’s system. It does this by managing inbound inventory and inventory levels in the storage structure against fulfillment orders, optimized to fulfillment gate times. The System Manager creates the pallet build plan based on a variety of factors, including inventory on hand. It also stores and aisles specific plan-o-grams, pallet structure, and even more granular criteria, such as isolating hazardous goods that require special handling.
Storage & Retrieval Engine: The company’s Storage and Retrieval Engine coordinates the mechanical components within its system, such as its autonomous robots, storage shelves, and lifts. It also determines, orders, and assigns all the tasks to be performed by its system. Finally, the Storage and Retrieval Engine manages safety within its system by monitoring physical access and related zonal lockouts.
The engine builds a put-away task list as goods are received that is based on put-away optimization, which determines the best placement of goods within the storage structure. Simultaneously, the engine builds a retrieval task list based on fulfillment requests. Since the flow of goods through the company’s system is highly dynamic and the related parameters are constantly changing, the engine reoptimizes every task that needs to be completed multiple times per second. The re-optimization is based on the supply of goods, the location of those goods, and the storage shelves available within the storage structure.
Next, the location and status of every part of its system and every case of goods is evaluated, and mobile robot routes are assigned to optimally perform all the put-away and retrieval tasks. As tasks are reassigned, the routes of the mobile robot are recomputed.
Real-Time Data Analytics Software: The company’s proprietary software aggregates and synthesizes system data to provide real-time analytics and actionable insights regarding inventory levels, system throughput, accuracy, and performance. The company also collect and analyze real-time data on various parts of its system to evaluate health, predict maintenance needs, and as a result maintain a high level of system performance.
A.I.-Powered De-Palletizing Robotic Cells: The company’s proprietary de-palletizing robotic end of arm tools, coupled with its A.I. and state-of-the-art vision enhanced robotic arms de-palletize up to 1,800 cases and 200 SKU layers per hour. During de-palletization, the company scans each case to create a digital model, including, among other things, its size, stability, and density. This allows the company’s A.I.-enabled software to optimize storage, retrieval, and palletizing for distribution to stores based upon an individual case’s characteristics.
A.I.-Powered Palletizing Robotic Cells: Using proprietary A.I.-enabled software, state-of-the-art vision enhanced palletizing robotic arms and the company’s patented end of arm tools it combines multiple SKUs into aisle-ready pallets. The company’s palletizing robotic application uses two robots simultaneously to palletize product rapidly and efficiently.
Sales and Marketing
The company goes to market via a direct sales model.
Intellectual Property
As of September 28, 2024, the company had over 475 issued patents in 14 countries and over 225 additional patents pending worldwide. The company’s issued patents are scheduled to expire between May 2025 and October 2043.
Government Regulations
Export and Trade Matters
The company is subject to anti-corruption laws and regulations imposed by governments around the world with jurisdiction over its operations, including the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, as well as the laws of the countries where the company do business. In accordance with trade sanctions administered by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and export controls administered by the U.S. Department of Commerce, the company is prohibited from engaging in transactions involving certain persons and certain designated countries or territories, including Cuba, Iran, Syria, North Korea, and the Crimea Region of Ukraine.
Employment Matters
The company is subject to federal, state, local, and foreign laws and regulations relating to the protection of its employees. In addition to the requirements of the state and local governments of the communities in which the company operate, it must comply with federal health and safety regulations, the most significant of which are enforced by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
Data Privacy
The company is also subject to federal, state, and foreign laws related to the privacy and protection of such data, including the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union.
