Locus Robotics has signed what it claims to be one of the largest deployments of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) ever. GEODIS is a leading global transport and logistics provider and has used Locus' AMRs since 2018, when it first deployed Locus' AMRs at a site in Indiana. The global third-party logistics company (3PL) has currently deployed Locus AMRs at 14 sites around the world, serving a variety of retail and consumer brands, including warehouses in the U.S and Europe. At press time, Locus hadn't provided how many of its AMRs GEODIS will have overall after these 1,000 are deployed. Locus told The Robot Report it doesn't have concrete evidence this is one of the largest AMR deals ever.

What we refer to as autonomous mobile robots are not. They are not really autonomous that is. Autonomy suggests some level of independence by a human, or a robot, in picking which tasks to work on and how they are completed. But the ROI from mobile robots is based on the centralized intelligence that choreographs the movement of human associates and the fleet of robots that support them in in a manner that minimizes travel for the associates. Both Jerome Dubois, the Co-CEO at 6 River Systems, and Bruce Welty, the Chairman at Locus Robotics made a similar point during different presentations referred at eft's 3PL & Supply Chain Summit in Atlanta in early June.