A vertical, robot-driven goods-to-person system that stores more inventory in far less floor space.
Attabotics is a three-dimensional(3D) storage and fulfilment system built around a dense vertical grid and a fleet of robots that move through it in every direction. Rather than spreading inventory across long aisles and shelving, it stacks storage into a compact cube and sends robots up, down and sideways through the structure to retrieve any bin on demand. Sequencing and sorting happen inside the grid rather than on external conveyors, so the whole operation fits into a fraction of the footprint a conventional pick and pack warehouse would need.
The Attabotics cube: high density vertical storage paired with integrated presentation stations.
What is Attabotics?
Attabotics is a warehouse automation platform that replaces flat, aisle based storage with a self supporting vertical grid. Robots known as Attabots travel across the top, down the sides and through the interior of the structure, giving every robot direct access to every bin and every pick station. The design was inspired by the way leaf cutter ants access their colonies vertically, and it is engineered specifically for fast, single item order fulfilment.
The problems it solves
Fulfilment operations are under pressure from several directions at once. Attabotics is positioned to address the most common ones:
- Floor space is scarce and expensive. The system reclaims height instead of sprawling across the floor.
- Labour is hard to find and retain. Goods are brought to the operator, cutting the walking and searching that dominate manual picking.
- Demand is volatile. Storage and throughput can be scaled independently as order profiles change.
- Single item and rush orders are growing. The system is built for exactly this pattern rather than bulk pallet movement.
How the system works
Traditional automation keeps inventory in two dimensional rows and aisles, or in shuttle systems that still work layer by layer. Attabotics reorganises that same inventory into a three dimensional cube. Because the Attabots can move in all three dimensions, they reach any stored bin directly, with no need to dig through or re slot other bins to get to it. That makes retrieval times consistent regardless of how the inventory is arranged, so there is no need to engineer a fast moving zone or a Pareto curve into your slotting.
Order sequencing and sortation are carried out in the space beneath the storage area, referred to as the basement, before bins are presented to an operator. Because that work happens inside the structure, the system does not depend on external conveyor loops for sorting, which is a large part of how it keeps its footprint so small. Presentation stations sit around the perimeter and are integrated into the structure itself, so any robot can serve any station.
The headline numbers
Attabotics frames its value around a handful of outcomes compared with a conventional manual pick from shelf layout:
| Reported outcome | What it refers to |
|---|---|
| Up to 85% less space | Footprint reduction versus a manual pick from shelf warehouse layout |
| Up to 75% less labour | Reduction in labour associated with picking and travel |
| Up to 50% lower CapEx | Reduction in upfront capital outlay |
| 100% bin access | Every robot can reach every bin and every station |
| 25% fewer robots | Fewer robots required than competing approaches, per the vendor |
Meet the Attabots
The Attabots are the robots that carry bins through the grid. Each one can travel in all three dimensions and reach every bin and station in the system, so a single robot failing does not take a row of inventory offline the way a fault in an aisle or shuttle system can. The robots are powered by long life ultra capacitors and recharge on each cycle as they climb, avoiding the downtime of swapping or charging conventional batteries.
An Attabot: three way travel, direct access to every bin, capacitor powered.
| Attabot specification | Value |
|---|---|
| Travel | All three dimensions of the grid |
| Access | Every bin and every station |
| Top speed | Up to 8.8 ft/s (about 2.7 m/s) |
| Maximum payload | 99 lb including bin weight (about 45 kg) |
| Power | Long life ultra capacitors, recharged each cycle while climbing |
Built for single item and online fulfilment
The vertical grid is designed around the demands of single item order fulfilment. Robots reach the top level, the basement and everything in between, so bins are retrieved directly without re slotting and system performance stays independent of the order structure. Rush orders are handled with ease, with bins arriving at a presentation station within about 90 seconds of the request. Manual sequencing, which is often needed when small orders have to be packed in a particular order to avoid damage, is handled automatically by combining short retrieval times with the sorting space in the basement.
Market leading storage density
As assortments grow, floor space becomes the constraint. The Attabotics structure can be built up to around 40 ft (roughly 12 m) high, using the vertical space in a building that conventional shelving leaves empty. Even though every bin remains directly accessible, the cube keeps storage extremely dense, which is what allows the footprint reduction of up to 85% compared with a manual shelf picking layout.
Efficient, ergonomic picking
Each presentation station can present more than 300 bins per hour to an operator, and newer stations can reach 400 to 500 bins per hour. Stations can be positioned anywhere around the perimeter of the system and, unlike external legacy conveyor setups, they are built into the structure geometry so every robot can move freely to any station. That flexibility lets throughput be tuned by adding stations and robots rather than by expanding the building.
A presentation station: 300 to 500 bins per hour, integrated into the structure.
Bin options and specifications
Inventory is held in polypropylene bins that come in two heights and accept removable dividers, so a single bin can be split into as many as 16 compartments to suit different product types.
Bins accept removable dividers for up to 16 compartments each.
| Specification | Medium bin | Tall bin |
|---|---|---|
| Outer dimensions (l x w x h) | 24 x 24 x 11 in (610 x 610 x 279 mm) | 24 x 24 x 17 in (610 x 610 x 432 mm) |
| Interior dimensions (l x w x h) | 22 x 22 x 10 in (559 x 559 x 254 mm) | 22 x 22 x 16 in (559 x 559 x 406 mm) |
| Empty weight | Approx. 9.7 lb (about 4.4 kg) | Approx. 9.7 lb (about 4.4 kg) |
| Maximum payload | 99 lb including bin (about 45 kg) | 99 lb including bin (about 45 kg) |
| Material | Polypropylene, UNIPOL 2135 | Polypropylene, UNIPOL 2135 |
| Dividers | Up to 16 compartments | Up to 16 compartments |
Proven at scale
Attabotics has deployed its system across North America, from installations of fewer than 5,000 bins to high end sites holding more than 190,000 bins. Reported deployments span a range of sectors:
| Sector | Approx. bins stored |
|---|---|
| Luxury retail | 191,000 |
| Ecommerce beauty | 25,000 |
| B2B beauty | 20,000 |
| Retail | 16,000 |
| Automotive | 13,100 |
| Food service | 13,100 |
| Ecommerce beauty (second site) | 8,000 |
| General merchandise | 3,500 |
What sets Attabotics apart
The vendor draws the sharpest contrast with legacy two dimensional aisle and shuttle systems, and with other cube style designs that still require digging or re slotting. The main points of difference:
| Area | Attabotics approach | Legacy and competing systems |
|---|---|---|
| Storage and retrieval | Cubed 3D structure; robots move above, below and through it with no digging or re slotting | Two dimensional aisles or shuttles with lower density; some cube designs still need digging and re slotting |
| Sequencing and sortation | Handled in the basement inside the structure, so no external conveyors are needed | Usually rely on external conveyor systems that expand the footprint |
| Resilience | Every robot reaches every bin, so one robot going down does not disable a zone | A fault in an aisle or shuttle can lock out entire rows until repaired |
| Throughput | Scales by adding robots and presentation stations | Often scales only by expanding the physical footprint |
| Density by footprint | Built up to 40 ft high with sequencing integrated, up to 85% less footprint | Shuttle systems need a large footprint; external sorting adds more |
About Attabotics
Attabotics provides an intelligent cube storage solution aimed at the changing fulfilment needs of modern commerce, pairing 3D storage, integrated picking stations and robot shuttles that can reach any bin without reshuffling the system.
