Robot collision sparked fire at UK’s top online grocer

Robots are credited with increasing efficiency in certain industrial use cases. But, as a major UK grocery store just found out, that doesn’t mean they aren’t accident prone like humans. Ocado – which competes with Amazon Fresh – has been forced to cancel orders from some customers after a robot collision sparked a fire at its south-east London warehouse. The incident appeared to involve three robots on the network and led to the evacuation of its Erith customer care center, the company said.

Ocado revealed that the fire triggered the site’s sprinkler system, but was contained by its mitigation measures. Nonetheless, London firefighters were called to the scene to deal with the blaze, the company added. In total, Ocado said the damage was limited to just 1% of its network, adding that it would take a week for the facility to resume operations.

The UK company’s warehouse in south-east London contains 3,000 robots that move at 13 feet per second while picking up grocery orders. Ocado also licenses its automation platform to others, including Kroger in the United States, which recently deployed the system at its 375,000 square foot customer care center in Monroe, Ohio.

Considering how close the droids are and how quick their task is, it’s a miracle that more clashes haven’t happened. As detailed in a recent CNN report, the robots – described as “washing machines on wheels” – move within five millimeters of each other on a grid-like system to collect items. Ocado even told the news release “we are basically playing chicken with them: they collide to get confused at the last moment.”