Shoppers probably don’t think much about what happens next when they place an online grocery order.
But it sets-off an intricate dance of software, artificial intelligence, robots, vans and workers.
At an Ocado warehouse just outside Luton, I’m in the middle of such a dance.
As far as I can see, hundreds of robots whizz around a grid, fetching items for online orders. They move with dizzying speed and precision.
In the early days of online shopping, when you placed an order, humans would dash around a warehouse or a store collecting your items.
But for years now, Ocado has been using robots to collect and distribute products, bringing them to staff, who pack them into boxes for delivery.
And Ocado is not the only firm investing in such automation.
In its warehouses, Asda uses a system from Swiss automation firm Swisslog and Sweden’s AutoStore. In the US, Walmart has been automating parts of its supply chain using robotics from an American company called Symbotic.
Back in Luton, Ocado has taken its automation process to a higher level.
The robots which zoom around the grid, now bring items to robotic arms, which reach out and grab what they need for the customer’s shop.
Bags of rice, boxes of tea, packets of crumpets are all grabbed by the arms using a suction cup on the end.
It might seem like a trivial addition, but training a robot to recognise an item, grab it successfully and move it, is surprisingly difficult.
At Ocado around 100 engineers have spent years training the artificial intelligence (AI) to take on that task.
James Matthews, chief executive of Ocado Technology explains the AI has to interpret the information coming from its cameras.
“What is an object? Where are the edges of that object? How would one grasp it?”
In addition the AI has to work out how to move the arm. “How do I pick that up and accelerate in a way without flinging it across the room? How do I place it in a bag?” he says.
The Luton warehouse has robotic 44 arms, which at the moment account for 15% of the products that flow through the facility, that’s about 400,000 items a week. The rest are handled by staff at picking stations.
