Robotics Start-Up Ubica Wins Award for Innovative Strategies in Retail

We are celebrating an important award with the robotics start-up Ubica Robotics, which was spun out from the IAI: The ZukunftHandel Award, an initiative of the German Retail Association, honours outstanding examples of forward-thinking strategies in retail. The jury was convinced by Ubica’s digital twins as an innovative and practice-oriented solution that saves time and money in retail.

The start-up Ubica Robotics was founded in 2020 by Ferenc Bálint-Benczédi, Georg Bartels, Alexis Maldonado and Jonas Reiling as a spin-out from the University of Bremen. The start-up is based on the research work of its founders within the framework of the H2020 research project “Robotics Enabling Fully-Integrated Logistics Lines for Supermarkets” (REFILLS) funded by the EU Commission. On this basis, the start-up develops robots that improve internal processes in retail stores.

The ZukunftHandel award is well-deserved: There is no doubt that Ubica's robots are outstanding in the German stationary retail sector. With their wide range of applications, they occupy a unique position. What also sets UBICA's robots apart is that they are backed up by detailed digital models and linked to background knowledge, enabling them to do their best work on the basis of so-called digital twins.

Every night after store closing time, Ubica's UB5 scanning robots autonomously roam the retail stores to capture, recognise and identify store inventory, and create and update store digital twins on a daily basis.

Based on these digital twins, which represent an accurate 3D digital image of the store, inventory management can be optimized in several ways: Customers and staff can find products more quickly, shelf gaps can be identified and closed early, and stocktaking can be simplified. This gives employees more time during the day to advise their customers. Overall, the use of Ubica robots promises stores to save time and money.

For more information about Ubica, visit their website.