Founded with a focus on using artificial intelligence to help large companies in e-commerce logistics, a Bedford-based robotics company has expanded to Japanese markets.
In April, two subsidiaries of Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, SoftBank Robotics and SB Logistics, partnered with Berkshire Grey, seeking to combine efforts in creating AI-enabled automation that picks, places, and packs customer orders.
Due to the impact of Amazon Prime’s delivery expectations and the pandemic, “all of these industries are under tremendous pressure due to all the changes in consumer demand in the world,” Berkshire Grey CEO Tom Wagner said.
Wagner defines Berkshire Grey’s technology as "Intelligent Enterprise Robotics."
“The reason we use that label is that we do robotic picking, handling, picking up of individual items, as well as robotic mobility, moving items around the warehouse,” Wagner said.
Through artificial intelligence coding, the company is able to instruct robots to handle all e-commerce capabilities for other companies.
The SoftBank partnership, “is an arrangement, which is based around the advanced third party logistics services that SoftBank provides. They are building a highly automated set of facilities and we are providing technology into that space,” Wagner said.
Manufacturing standards differ across markets, according to Wanger. Contrary to American standards, Japan has “particularly stringent handling requirements. In the Japanese market, for instance, a blemish to the outer packaging of a product can constitute damage,” Wagner said.
His six-year-old company is working to become publicly traded. It’s entered a definitive agreement with Revolution Acceleration Acquisition Corp. (RAAC) an investment company.
As it works to go public, Berkshire Grey plans to keep its roots in the Boston area and continue to support its 300 person staff despite entering a global market.
