AI Foundation Model Is Primed for Warehouse Work Ambi Robotics, a provider of AI-powered robotic sorting solutions, launched PRIME-1, the rst robotic foundation model to be deployed in real-world commercial warehouse operations. PRIME-1, which stands for Production-Ready Industrial Manipulation Expert, provides a backbone that can be ne-tuned for a variety of robot operations including 3D perception, package picking, and quality control. It can increase performance, accelerate product development, and boost the reliability and maintainability of robotic solutions. The foundation model was pre- trained with self-supervised deep learning on more than 20 million high-quality images from individual pick, place, and pack events spanning 150,000 operating hours across the company’s eet of AI-powered robotic sorting systems in U.S. warehouses. The training dataset represents about 1% of the data collected to-date. 3D quality
Humanoids? Wait 5 Years As warehouse operators, ecommerce platforms, and manufacturers boost automation plans in response to labor shortages in warehouses, high- growth areas in robotic automation include: mixed palletizing and depalletizing, and mixed-SKU piece picking and packing, says Derik Pridmore, co-founder and CEO of robotics solutions provider OSARO. Next up will be truck and van unloading, he notes. Meanwhile, the number of humanoid units produced by companies will remain at single- digit growth, he predicts. Significant technical barriers persist, including battery life, heat dissipation, payload, sensing, safety, and a hardware/software learning loop. Cost optimization for mass manufacturing of humanoids is still 5+ years away, he estimates.
Rethink Robotics’ Riser mobile manipulator robot (MMR)
The breadth and speci city of data ensures PRIME-1 is optimized for precision and ef ciency in real-world logistics operations. of data
PRIME-1 was trained on 20 million images from more than 150,000 hours across Ambi Robotics’ fleet of robots operating in warehouses across the United States (equivalent to one robot operating around the clock for 17 years).
164 Inbound Logistics • January 2025
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