Kiva Systems

My son works at a cool place, Kiva Systems, just north of Boston. I've taken a couple of tours of the place, which features squat orange warehouse robots moving items from place to place. Here's a nice demo video.

Here's a dry summary from the company of what they're about:

Kiva Systems provides automated order fulfillment and material handling systems for distribution centers that enable companies to simplify operations and reduce costs, while increasing strategic flexibility. Using autonomous mobile robots, movable shelving and sophisticated control software, the Kiva Mobile Fulfillment System enables extremely fast cycle times with reduced labor requirements. From receiving to picking to shipping—Kiva automates fulfillment without unwieldy conveyor delivering best-in-class order accuracy and improved safety. The result is warehouse automation that is quick to set up, inexpensive to operate and easy to change. World-class companies including Staples, Walgreens, Gap, Zappos.com, Diapers.com, Quiet Logistics and DJO medical devices use Kiva automated storage and retrieval systems to fulfill direct-to-consumer, retail re-stocking and business-to-business orders.

I'm a firm believah
in Kiva.