FUJI Corporation, through FUJI Innovation Lab, will be exhibiting for a second year running at one of the world’s biggest retail technology conferences, “NRF 2024: Retail’s Big Show”, held from January 14 to 16 in New York, with a booth twice the size of the one FUJI had last year. The company will sustain the concept of “Automate your existing assets”.

Specifically, FUJI’s new model autonomous mobile robot (AMR), the Rally F-type, will be at the center of the exhibits. It will demonstrate its ability to handle the movement of cage carts that are used widely in transporting goods from back room areas to shop floors of retail stores.

Rally Development Background

As labor shortages worsen across the world, the need is growing for automation of goods movement. In the retail sector automation has come quite far in distribution centers. However, similar progress has yet to be made in retail stores due to the high hurdle of initial investment cost. Mainly, retailers want automation solutions for their stores that allow them to use their existing cage carts without any modifications.

FUJI’s autonomous mobile robot Rally was developed for use with existing carts. This way, automation of store logistics operations is possible without the need to change the shop floor environment. Also, Rally frees associates from the hard work of transporting heavy cages over long distances during the night and early morning shifts. Accordingly, it readies stores for opening time and associates can focus on more value-added tasks such as displays and customer interaction.

Rally Features

Specifically, the new AMR features an ultra-low profile to enter under cage carts and conveys up to 400kg (880lb). It enables omnidirectional travel to maneuver in tight spaces. Additionally, it has easy operation features by simply adding marker labels to cage carts.