IKEA said in a press release on Friday that it plans to deploy autonomous, AI-equipped drones at its distribution center in Perryville, Md. The Swedish company has been testing drones around the world since 2021, but this will be the first time that the drones will operate alongside IKEA employees in the U.S. to check inventory and reduce physical strain on employees.
“IKEA’s drones use artificial intelligence-based algorithms to identify product locations and take photos,” said Parag Parekh, global CDO, IKEA Retail, in a press release. “Furthermore, drone flights are scheduled in advance and use a custom indoor positioning system to navigate the higher floors of storage locations (three or more floors). Equipped with obstacle detection, these drones can change their route to avoid collisions.”
The drone is manufactured by Verity, and a video demonstrating how it works is available on YouTube. The company says it has 250 drones in operation across 73 IKEA stores in nine countries.
“Drones are a great example of how we can achieve a win-win on both fronts by simplifying processes in the logistics department and improving customer experience through increased inventory integrity,” Claes Lindgren, who oversees global logistics at IKEA, said in a press release.
While IKEA expands its drone use behind the scenes, other companies are scaling back their use of drones in direct-to-consumer interactions. Walmart, for example, announced on Friday that it would significantly scale back its drone use and close 18 delivery centers in Phoenix, Salt Lake City and Tampa, though it will continue to deliver packages by drone. Dallas-Fort WorthAccording to a new report from Axios.
According to Axios, 70 employees of Walmart’s drone partner DroneUp will lose their jobs, about 17% of the company’s workforce. The problem now is that using drones to deliver packages directly to consumers is that the cost of delivery is too high. DroneUp CEO Tom Walker told Axios that under the current system, it costs about $30 per delivery to send a package by drone. The goal is to get this cost down to $7 a day, which would be closer to the cost of a ground-based delivery system. Of course, the financial considerations are different if drones are used in distribution warehouses to manage inventory, as IKEA currently does.
IKEA did not immediately respond to questions about exactly when it will introduce drones in the U.S. or how many of its distribution centers will have them in the near future. Gizmodo will update this article when answers become available.