The problem
Warehouses cannot hire the people they need
Palletizing, sorting and case handling are the hardest jobs to fill and the hardest on the people who do them. Conventional automation answers with millions of dollars of capital, two-year timelines and a purpose-built building. Most operators cannot justify it.
Capital
Traditional systems want millions before a single case moves. Our customers buy commercially available robots and license the intelligence.
Time
Two years from contract to production is common on a greenfield build. A Neocortex system is typically running in 60 to 90 days.
Disruption
Automation often assumes a purpose-built facility. Neocortex installs into the warehouse you are already operating, and it keeps operating.
Products
Four products, one platform
Each one automates work that is currently done by hand. All four run on the same Neocortex software, with robots from Yaskawa, FANUC, ABB, KUKA and Kawasaki.
Pick
Picks pieces and cases from mixed inventory, decants into totes, and puts away — without fixed programming for every item.
Inspect
Inspects product and packaging for damage, defects, shape and grade, and keeps a permanent visual record.
Sort
Sorts every pallet type, brand and condition into homogeneous stacks — hands free, at speed.
Palletizer
Builds stable mixed-product pallets from cases that vary load to load — the hardest job on the floor.
In production
Running in real distribution centers
Our customers' names are theirs to give, not ours to use. Here is the work instead.
Working across
- Grocery distribution
- Pharmaceutical
- Government
- Third-party logistics
- Retail
- Manufacturing
Robotics as a Service
Warehouse automation without the capital project
Conventional automation is a capital purchase with an uncertain payback. Neocortex is Robotics as a Service: you buy commercially available robots on the open market and license the intelligence that makes them useful, month by month.
You own the hardware
Robots are bought on the open market at market prices. The capital equipment is yours, not leased back to you at a markup.
We license the intelligence
A monthly fee for the software that makes the robot capable of the work — priced against the labour it replaces.
It improves without a rebuild
The software gets better over the life of the contract. Every advance in robot hardware makes your system more capable.
It has to keep earning
A service has to justify itself every month. That is the right pressure to put on a supplier, and we ask for it.
The platform
The operating system for warehouse automation
Neocortex closes the loop between vision, artificial intelligence and motion control. It perceives what is actually in front of the robot, plans the sequence of physical actions, and drives the machine through it in real time — adapting to variability instead of failing on it.
It is robot- and sensor-agnostic, and it has been hardened through years of practical use. The machine is a means to an end. The brain is what matters most.
Questions we get
What buyers ask us first
Do we have to buy new robots?
No. You buy commercially available industrial robots on the open market at market prices, and license the Neocortex software that makes them capable of the work. The capital equipment is yours. We are hardware agnostic and work with robots from Yaskawa, FANUC, ABB, KUKA and Kawasaki.
How long does it take to install?
Typically 60 to 90 days from contract to production, compared with two years or more for a greenfield automation build. A Goods to Robot cell arrives on a skid and can be operating within a day.
Will it work in the warehouse we already have?
That is what it is built for. Neocortex installs into a working facility with the racking, traffic and constraints it already has. There is no purpose-built building and no shutdown.
What happens when our product mix changes?
Nothing. The system looks at what is actually in front of it rather than following a program written for specific items, so a new SKU, a different case size or an odd orientation does not require reprogramming.
How is it priced?
As Robotics as a Service — a monthly licence fee for the software, set against the cost of the labour it replaces, rather than a large capital purchase with an uncertain payback.
What does it connect to?
Your warehouse management and warehouse control systems, for taking work and reporting results. We do our own PLC programming and controls integration, and every cycle writes a record to SQL and inventory databases so counts, grades and exceptions are queryable.
Find out what it would automate in your building
Tell us what the work looks like and we will tell you honestly whether we can automate it.
Talk to us