How Geek+ robots could’ve picked 10B items in a year

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Geek+ P-series robots handle storage shelving then queue and present items for picking to humans. | Credit: Geek+

Geek+ recently announced its combined worldwide fleet of P-series goods-to-person (GTP) workflow robots picked ten billion items over the past year. The GTP picking solutions deployed around the world covered over 175 million km during the period, according to the company, which is further than the distance from the Earth to the sun.

Yong Zheng, Founder and CEO of Geek+, said: “We are very proud of what we have achieved recently. The amount of merchandise that our robots have handled, coupled with the savings in time and energy, demonstrate that mobile robots are a technology for today’s problems and a brighter future.”

Each day, the number of items managed by Geek+ GTP robots and warehouse management systems reached as much as 750 million, according to the company.

This is a significant milestone for a fleet of robots. In researching this claim, we reached out to the company to inquire about the deployed number of GTP robots used to reach this milestone.

In the U.S., Geek+ said it has deployed more than 4,000 robots in 24 locations since 2019. Worldwide, the company said it has deployed an additional 26,000 robots for a total worldwide fleet of 30,000 robots. We used that final figure in the calculation of this milestone.

With all of the data in hand, each robot needed to pick an average of 1.5 items per minute and drive at an average speed of 440 mm/sec (well within the technical and operating specifications of the robots).

The table below contains output from the spreadsheet that we generated to validate these claims. A company representative stated that the formula for calculating the items picked number was calculated using the average tasks picked per hour * average pieces per task * 10 working hours per day * operating robot * operating period.

Table 1 – Calculations for Geek+ robots (initial conditions in bold)

*data provided by Geek+

Over the past year, Geek+ has added new projects and expanded its collaboration with existing clients while continuing to evolve the complete solution. The company optimized Geek+’s warehouse management systems to boost robot efficiency by 15%. Geek+ said it plans to continue to improve and enhance its technology and expects further gains in sustainability and efficiency in 2023.

In 2022, Geek+ secured partnerships to expand into Canada and Brazil. Also, Geek+ has expanded its operations by adding a 1400m2 experience center and two new offices in North America, with over 100 employees.