New warehouse automation launches

Warehouse robots are moving from helping human pickers to doing more of the aisle work themselves, with new systems unveiled at MODEX 2026 in Atlanta. (fanucamerica.com) (dcvelocity.com) (modexshow.com) At MODEX, FANUC America said it was demonstrating five warehouse and logistics systems, including a CRX-30iA collaborative robot mounted on an OTTO 600 autonomous mobile robot for palletizing and box handling. The company said the setup uses box-locating vision, payload estimation, and barcode-based decision logic to adapt to mixed box sizes and routing requirements. (fanucamerica.com) (robotics247.com) Locus Robotics used the same April 13-16 trade show to launch Locus Array, which it described as a fully autonomous fulfillment system that combines a mobile robot, a robotic picking arm, and artificial-intelligence perception. DC Velocity reported that early-access deployments are already underway in North America, including with DHL Supply Chain. (dcvelocity.com) (tmcnet.com) A warehouse picking system is the part of the operation that finds the right item on the shelf and moves it into an order. The hard part is not driving down the aisle; it is identifying the right carton or product in a messy, changing environment and handing it off without errors or delays. (bls.gov) (fanucamerica.com) That is why vendors are pairing mobile robots with cameras, barcode readers, and software that decides what to pick and where to take it next. FANUC said its MODEX systems focus on scanning, picking, palletizing, depalletizing, and autonomous material movement, while Locus said Array can handle picking, put-away, induction, drop-off, slotting, and replenishment in one system. (fanucamerica.com) (dcvelocity.com) The timing lines up with a warehouse sector still under pressure to move more goods with fewer wasted steps. Federal Reserve data show U.S. warehousing and storage employment reached about 1.84 million in March 2026, underscoring how large the labor base still is even as automation vendors pitch systems that cut walking, lifting, and manual handoffs. (fred.stlouisfed.org) (fanucamerica.com) MODEX is one of the industry’s main launch stages for that pitch. The Material Handling Industry association says the 2026 show ran April 13-16 in Atlanta and featured more than 1,000 solution providers on the floor. (modexshow.com) (mhi.org) The split in approaches is narrowing. FANUC’s demos center on robots and autonomous mobile robots working safely around people, including speed controls that slow when workers approach, while Locus is pushing a “robots-to-goods” model that brings the machine to the shelf and aims to automate the full sequence in the aisle. (fanucamerica.com) (robotics247.com) (dcvelocity.com) Locus said Array deploys in weeks, works with its existing Locus Origin and Vector fleets, and can cover 100% of stock-keeping units in one system; that claim comes from the company and will be tested in customer rollouts. FANUC, for its part, is framing its new warehouse lineup as practical automation for operators that still expect people and machines to share the same floor. (dcvelocity.com) (fanucamerica.com) The near-term test is simple: whether these systems can raise pick accuracy and throughput without forcing warehouses to rebuild around them. MODEX 2026 made clear that suppliers now want to sell not just a robot, but the whole trip from shelf to shipment. (fanucamerica.com) (dcvelocity.com)