Symbotic acquires robot safeguarding system maker Veo for $8.7 million

The well-funded warehouse robotics vendor Symbotic Inc. has acquired Veo Robotics, a provider of intelligent safeguarding technology for industrial robots, for $8.7 million, the two Massachusetts-based firms said Friday.

Symbotic was founded in 2007, but grew in leaps and bounds in recent years when it announced in 2022 that it had landed a deal to provide its robotics and software automation platform for all 42 of retail giant Walmart Inc.’s regional distribution centers (DCs). And in 2023, the firm said it had teamed with Japanese investment firm Softbank Group to found a joint venture called GreenBox that would sell warehouse-as-a-service automation products.

In this latest growth phase, Symbotic says the Veo deal will provide it with assets including the smaller firm’s “FreeMove” 3D depth-sensing computer vision system for industrial workcells and all related intellectual property. By integrating FreeMove into its robotic warehouse automation system, Symbotic expects to increase productivity with more dynamic, flexible human-machine collaboration.

Specifically, the FreeMove system can dynamically anticipate the future position of humans and objects within the robot’s environment, and then autonomously restrict or resume motion, ensuring worker safety without sacrificing efficiency.

Symbotic’s system supports an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered automated material handling system that builds palletized loads of department-sorted inventory and uses end-of-arm tools and vision systems to output cases, totes, and packages at high speeds.