WALTHAM, Mass. — Vecna Robotics Inc. today announced that it is expanding its partnership with UniCarriers America Corp., which will manufacture and promote its pallet jacks running Vecna’s Pivotal orchestration engine.

Vecna provides autonomous systems using its proprietary software, as well as round-the-clock support, to the distribution, warehousing, and manufacturing sectors. The company, which has been on the RBR50 list from 2015 to 2019, raised $50 million in Series B funding in January.

UniCarriers Americas is part of Mitsubishi Logisnext, the third-largest forklift manufacturer in the world. It has more than 350 skilled professionals and a half-a-million square-foot factory in Marengo, Ill. UniCarriers and Vecna first announced their partnership last September.

UniCarriers production to help meet demand

Vecna Robotics said that UniCarriers’ manufacturing capabilities will enable it “to satisfy soaring demand” for automation from its customer base, which includes the largest retailers, third-party logistics providers (3PLs), and manufacturers in North America.

“It is clear that logistics is no longer a cost center for the material handling industry; it is the differentiator,” stated Daniel Theobald, founder and CEO of Vecna Robotics. “Our partnership with UniCarriers America allows our customers to quickly expand their use of automation solutions in order to satisfy the customer expectations for faster delivery.”

Joint support and sales for Vecna AMRs

Vecna said it will work with UniCarriers’ authorized dealer network of 125 dealers throughout the Americas. Through this support network, customers can expect rapid response times in the field, further improving the already best-in-class uptime offered by the company’s autonomous mobile robots (AMRs).

In addition, UniCarriers will promote Vecna Robotics AMRs to its national accounts.

“We are seeing the need to expand our offering to address our customer’s growing needs to automate their operations,” said Brian Markison, senior director for national accounts and AGV sales at UniCarriers Americas. “The combination of our pallet jack’s high quality and Vecna’s Pivotal automation software is a great combination for us to offer to help our customer meet automation challenges.”

Pivotal helps coordinate people and machines

Vecna Robotics added that not only can it deliver AMRs at scale, but it also provides one of the most integrated solutions in the industry through its Pivotal continuously learning orchestration engine.

The software is designed to help enterprises navigate the challenges associated with coordinating human and robot productivity, according to the company.

Pivotal works with warehouse management systems (WMS) to coordinate and assign tasks to robots, humans, and manual material-handling equipment (MHE) in real time based on resource capability, location, and availability. Pivotal also enables users to quickly add units to a fleet without interrupting established workflows or productivity, Vecna said.