Ocado had to cancel orders and shut down the facility for a few days.
Robots may be the future of order fulfillment (and cleaning and gardening), but there's still a long way to go before it's completely safe to rely on them. Online grocer Ocado just found that out after its fulfillment robots caused a fire to break out.
As Engadget reports, Ocado operates a customer fulfillment center (CFC) in Erith, south-east London that's home to over 3,000 robots passing within 5mm of each other as they move around on a grid filling bags with grocery items for orders. However, on Friday last week disaster struck as three robots in the CFC collided causing a fire to break out.
According to Ocado, "The correct protocols were successfully implemented including the evacuation of the building, the activation of the sprinkler system and the presence of the London Fire Brigade. No one has been injured and all colleagues on site are safe. The damage is limited to a small section of less than 1% of the grid having been contained by planned fire attenuation measures."
YouTuber Tom Scott recently posted a video showing how Ocado's robot fulfillment system works: https://youtu.be/ssZ_8cqfBlE
Although the fire was quickly contained, the CFC remains offline and it could be several days before orders start being filled again. There is a lingering smell of smoke within the facility, which suggests some deep cleaning and air filtration needs to happen before the robots start moving. Having the sprinkler system activate also means Ocado needs to allow all its equipment to dry, which will be helped considerably by the high temperatures in the UK this week.
The positives to take away from this incident include the fact no humans were injured because the facility is all robots. It also proved Ocado's protocols work well. However, the fact the robots collided at all shows there's a software problem to work out, or perhaps it's a sensor problem? Maybe that's a positive, too, as it highlighted something that needs fixing without causing extensive damage.
Back in 2019, Ocado suffered a major fire at its facility in Andover, Hampshire after a detection system failed. It required a complete rebuild, which Ocado only completed it in February this year. So the company will be reassured that its protocols worked this time.