What is AutoStore?
AutoStore is a high-density, cube-based automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS). It is designed to maximize warehouse efficiency through robotic bin handling. Robots move across the top of an aluminum grid, lifting and delivering bins filled with products to ergonomic picking ports. This drastically reduces the storage footprint and picking times.
Trusted by global leaders like PUMA, Best Buy, and HelloFresh, AutoStore has redefined intralogistics by combining compact design, scalability, and near-continuous uptime. Its modular architecture integrates seamlessly into existing warehouse layouts, but when it comes to outbound automation, especially palletizing, additional flexibility is often needed.
More specifically, companies that invest in AutoStore optimize the front half of their warehouse operations: storage, retrieval, and picking. However, it is the final step that still creates friction: how products are palletized and shipped.
At Progressive Robotics, solutions for mixed (and even unsequenced) palletizing are built to complement AutoStore systems, ensuring that your high-speed upstream automation doesn’t hit a downstream bottleneck.
Bridge the AutoStore–Palletizing Gap with True Robotic Intelligence
During the last few years, AutoStore’s high-density cube storage and robot pickers have revolutionized warehouse efficiency in logistics. But the very flexibility that makes AutoStore so powerful in handling thousands of small, mixed-SKU orders, is also the one that complicates palletizing.
Traditional palletizers rely on pre-sorted, sequenced feeds, which slows down operations and requires staging buffers. Progressive Robotics eliminates that step.
Using real-time dimensioning of each sku, the palletizing software accepts random case sequences directly from your AutoStore outfeed conveyors, dynamically generating optimal stacking patterns on-the-fly.
Calculate ROI or contact us for a free simulation tailored to your use case.
Example of Palletizing Workflow: From Bin to Pallet
Picture this scenario:
- AutoStore robots retrieve bins and deliver them to picking ports.
- Picked cases move by conveyor to the palletizing zone.
- The Progressive Robotics palletizer automatically measures each incoming box dimensions and stacks mixed SKUs in real time.
- Completed pallets are wrapped, labeled, and ready for shipping. No staging, no delays.
Why This Matters for 3PLs, E-Commerce & FMCG Warehouses
All these sectors thrive on speed, flexibility, and SKU variety. AutoStore has solved the storage challenge – now it’s time to optimize outbound logistics.
With Progressive Robotics’ mixed palletizing system warehouses can now handle frequent product changes, rush orders, and packaging variations without manual sorting or disruptions due to reprogramming requirements.
How Progressive Robotics Enhances AutoStore Workflows
1. Handles Mixed-SKU, Unsequenced Orders
Feed any mix of cases directly from AutoStore without pre-sorting. Let Progressive Robotics’ AI-driven logic build stable, efficient pallets regardless of case order or SKU variety.
2. Seamless Integration
Progressive Robotics’ software communicates easily with your WMS / WES and AutoStore controller, adapting in real time to throughput changes or order priorities with no manual coordination needed.
3. Modular and Scalable
Just like AutoStore, this palletizing platform has a modular architecture that allows integrators and end-users to choose between implementing an “all-in-one” solution or simply choose one of the API modules (e.g., the stacking API). Unlike AutoStore however, Progressive Robotics’ solution is hardware-agnostic. That means that you can integrate plug-n-play software solutions without needing to change your hardware equipment and existing workflows.
4. Foreseen Efficiency Gains
Warehouses and distribution centers that integrate on-the-fly mixed case palletizing after AutoStore typically achieve:
- Faster pallet build time
- Decrease in manual labor
- Quick ROI
Progressive Robotics + AutoStore = Continuous Logistics Flow
Pairing AutoStore with an intelligent palletizing system creates a future-proof end-to-end automation loop:
- No bottlenecks between picking and palletizing
- Higher throughput and uptime
- Faster order fulfillment
- Maximized ROI from your automation stack
Let’s Talk
If your facility uses AutoStore (or plans to), let’s discuss how Progressive Robotics can extend that efficiency to your shipping line.
Book a demo and discover how Progressive Robotics’ system adapts to your AutoStore workflow.
