Heavy‑lift picker debuts

Locus Robotics has started showing customers a warehouse robot called Array that drives to shelves and picks cases without a person in the aisle. (locusrobotics.com) Locus launched Array at MODEX 2026 in Atlanta, which ran April 13-16, and said deployments are already underway with early-access customers in North America. DHL Supply Chain is one of those customers, according to Locus and trade coverage of the launch. (modexshow.com) (dcvelocity.com) (automatedwarehouseonline.com) The machine is a mobile robot with a picking arm and camera-based perception system, built to handle picking, putaway, replenishment, induction, and drop-off in one fleet. Locus says it runs inside standard warehouse aisles and works with existing racking instead of a fixed grid or conveyor buildout. (dcvelocity.com) (locusrobotics.com) Warehouse automation has often split into two camps: small autonomous mobile robots that bring carts to workers, and large fixed systems that require major construction. Locus is pitching Array as a third lane that brings the robot to the inventory while keeping the building largely intact. (locusrobotics.com) (therobotreport.com) That pitch is aimed at operators dealing with labor shortages, wage pressure, and seasonal volume swings. Locus says Array can reduce picking and putaway labor by up to 90% and deploy in weeks rather than the multi-year timelines common for some automated storage systems. (locusrobotics.com 1) (locusrobotics.com 2) Locus has been building toward this step for years from a simpler starting point: robots that assist human pickers. The company says its installed base now includes 17,000 autonomous mobile robots and more than 7 billion robot-assisted picks, giving it a large customer base to sell a more autonomous system into. (automatedwarehouseonline.com) (locusrobotics.com) The first public customer named for Array is DHL Supply Chain. Locus said in November that its first Array units had arrived at a DHL facility in Columbus, Ohio, and later said the system was in live operations with DHL as part of its early-access rollout. (locusrobotics.com) (automatedwarehouseonline.com) Locus executives have also drawn a line between Array and the humanoid-robot wave that has dominated warehouse demos. In a November interview, the company said it spent about three years developing Array and chose a purpose-built machine for shelves, bins, and cases rather than a human-shaped robot. (automate.org) What comes next is less about a trade-show reveal than about proving the system in live customer sites. Locus is now trying to show that autonomous case and shelf handling can move from pilot footage to regular warehouse shifts. (dcvelocity.com)