Warehouses Without People

Until recently, discussions about humanoid robots in logistics were largely viewed as a long-term forecast. However, Europe’s largest companies are gradually moving this concept from corporate presentations into real business operations. Accenture, Vodafone and SAP have announced a joint pilot project under which humanoid robots will work in a warehouse located in Duisburg, Germany.

The key feature of the project is not the mere presence of robots, but the type of tasks they are being assigned. These are not specialised machines designed for a single operation. Instead, they are robots capable of moving through a conventional warehouse, interacting with existing infrastructure and carrying out tasks that were previously regarded as exclusively human. They perform visual inspections, move between storage areas and receive assignments through SAP’s corporate warehouse management systems.

For businesses, this is an exceptionally important experiment. Most warehouses around the world were built for people, and fully rebuilding them is prohibitively expensive. If humanoids can operate within existing facilities without large-scale infrastructure upgrades, the pace of logistics automation could increase dramatically.

Against a backdrop of rising labour costs and chronic workforce shortages across the logistics sector, projects of this kind no longer appear to be technological curiosities. Rather, they represent an attempt to solve a very specific economic problem. Companies are looking for ways to ensure round-the-clock operations without increasing staffing costs or becoming more dependent on labour market conditions.

The practical conclusion appears obvious. The first wave of warehouse automation was associated with conveyor systems and robotic transport vehicles. The next wave will be driven by humanoid robots capable of performing a broad range of tasks within environments designed for people. If these pilot projects prove successful, the profession of warehouse operative may begin to change as rapidly as the role of cashier once changed following the introduction of self-service checkouts.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260421209563/en/Accenture-Vodafone-Procure-Connect-and-SAP-Pilot-Humanoid-Robotics-in-Warehouse-Operations

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