With the Kiva System, the design is based on parallel processing rather than serial processing. Thus if at any time an operator at a work station needs to stop working, then the other work stations can continue processing orders. If at any time a robot goes down, then another redundant robot is there to take its place.

How do Kiva robots navigate?

It's a mobile base that can navigate autonomously using lidar to track its location in a pre-mapped area, with cameras and 2D barcodes for verification. Each robot knows the location of every item in the warehouse, and when an item needs to be picked for an order, the robot will navigate to that item and wait.

How does the Kiva system work?

The Kiva system calculates the optimal storage location on the grid floor for each pod based on a complex algorithm that takes into account product pick volumes, SKU popularity, number of pods containing the same items, station locations, order history, current orders, etc.