Swedish furniture chain, Ikea, has upgraded its drone system for stock counts, and it is now available in the US.
The autonomous drones will soon work alongside employees at Ikea’s Perryville, Maryland, distribution centre, where the Swedish furniture brand began installation this summer, according to an announcement made by the company.
Ikea is prepared to roll out its drones to several places over the upcoming year, following a year of testing at the retailer’s DC in Winterslag, Belgium.
The labour-intensive and time-consuming task of stock inventory, which is currently performed by employees, will be automated in the following phase.
This change will provide coworkers more time to improve the client experience while also giving Ikea faster, more accurate, and more precise stock management.
Possessing and running hundreds of Ikea stores, accounting for about 90% of its retail sales, Ingka Group is arguably the most well-known brand entering the new market.
It makes sense: the enormous warehouses filled with bulky things are operated by the Swedish meatball vendor and furniture behemoth.
For most robots, it’s too much vertical space, and there’s a lot of ground to cover for humans.
Ikea and Verity, a robotics and AI company, started working together in 2021 to create a completely autonomous drone system for Ikea’s warehouses.
Since the first drone flew in Ikea Switzerland, over 250 drones have been operating at 73 locations across nine countries.
Verity also has a brand-new AI-powered technology that enables them to fly through warehouses all day, every day.
This implies that they will now work alongside human employees, assisting with inventory counts and determining whether items are placed incorrectly.
Previously, the drones would only fly during non-operational hours.
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