Autonomous picking of online orders

The project team from LLOYD (project manager Stephan Wiegmann, centre), the TORU robots and engineers from Magazino for the implementation.

Munich, December 11, 2019 - The robotics company Magazino signs the shoe manufacturer and retailer LLOYD Shoes GmbH as a new customer. From now on the first two mobile picking robots from Magazino will be used in LLOYD's dispatch warehouse in Sulingen, Germany. The TORU robots will support the employees in picking and stowing shoes in shelving racks.

With the use of intelligent picking robots like TORU, LLOYD is one of the innovative pioneers in the industry. The continuing growth in e-commerce and ever smaller batch sizes require automation solutions that can be adapted flexibly and scaled as required. Additional TORU robots can be integrated into an existing fleet in less than half a day.

Stephan Wiegmann, responsible project manager at LLOYD says: "We are convinced that Magazino robots are an important component for a flexible, scalable automation of our warehouse processes and help us to reflect the growth in e-commerce and above all to support our employees".

One of the key benefits of TORU is its ability to support human colleagues in their activities and the easy integration into the existing warehouse environment in Sulingen without any redesign of the warehouse itself. This enables TORU to relieve employees of non-ergonomic tasks such as picking from the bottom or top shelf, or particularly long walking distances in the warehouse. Thanks to numerous sensors, the TORU robot can perceive its environment, recognize people or obstacles in its path. This allows TORU to operate in a safe way in parallel with employees. With up to 18 hours operating time, TORU can also work at night or outside core working hours.

After the delivery at the beginning of December 2019, the first two robots are now exploring their new working environment and are subject to a number of tests before being integrated into live operations. Through a link to a global cloud and the use of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.), TORU can constantly learn from its own experience in its daily work and share this knowledge with its robot colleagues. This makes all of the robots constantly faster and much more robust in unknown situations.

The TORU robots are already running at several customer sites in Germany and Europe. Among the users are the logistics service provider FIEGE Logistics and the online platform Zalando. Both have recently significantly increased their robot fleet. In contrast to many other robotic solutions on the market, which either focused on static manipulation or transportation, TORU can pick individual items and transport them from A to B in the warehouse. Covering both process steps, especially individual item picking within a vastly complex environment in live operation is revolutionary.


About Magazino
Magazino was founded in 2014, Munich, Germany by Frederik Brantner, Lukas Zanger and Nikolas Engelhard. Magazino develops and builds intelligent, mobile robots that perceive their environment and make their own decisions. These autonomous robots work alongside people and make processes in e-commerce, fashion and production logistics more flexible and efficient than ever before. With over 110 employees in Munich, Magazino is the largest Advanced Robotics team in Europe. Magazino raised EUR 20,1 Mio (USD 23 Mio) in a series B financing round in February 2018.

About LLOYD Shoes:
Since 1888, LLOYD Shoes GmbH has stood for highest quality in shoe production. The great care to detail, the constant striving to develop further as well as the implementation of latest innovations in retailing together serve to position the traditional company LLOYD as a trailblazer when it comes to identifying and fulfilling current customer requirements. Founded by H. F. Meyer in Bremen, LLOYD expanded worldwide, is meanwhile internationally established through the LLOYD Concept Stores and thus personally available to customers in various regions. LLOYD currently sells its products, which are available in more than 56 countries, at approximately 3,350 points of sale. Suitable for men's and women's collections, the product portfolio covers high-quality leather goods such as jackets, bags or belts along with many other accessories. LLOYD Shoes GmbH employed an average of 1,792 employees in 2017, 715 of them alone in Germany. In the financial year 2018, the company recorded a consolidated revenue of approximately 130 million euros.