Zebra sells off its Fetch AMR division

Zebra Technologies Corp. has sold off the Fetch Robotics division it acquired five years ago, saying it has sold its Robotics Automation business to Pittsburgh-based robot intelligence developer Skild AI. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Zebra said that in addition to receiving cash consideration, it also took on an equity stake in Skild AI. Zebra bought Fetch for some $300 million in 2021. Over the past six months, Lincolnshire, Illinois-based Zebra has said it was looking to offload the unit. In a statement, Zebra said it shed the autonomous mobile robot (AMR) division in order to “further sharpen its strategic focus on accelerating workflows across the supply chain and prioritizing investments in high-growth areas such as RFID, machine vision, and AI for the frontline.” As the new owner, Skild AI says its core technology—known as the Skild Brain platform—is not tailored to specific robot designs, but rather is “omni-bodied” and can control any robot without prior knowledge of its exact body form. With this acquisition, Skild AI said it aims to accelerate the deployment of robotics automation solutions alongside its general-purpose Skild Brain. A key component of this strategy is to build upon the proven ability of Zebra’s Symmetry Fulfillment orchestration platform to coordinate tasks between robots and frontline workers using Zebra wearable devices, the two companies said. In Skild AI’s vision, the deal means that logistics operators will no longer need to engineer their warehouse around their robots and deal with several partners — each providing one fragment of the automated solution. Rather, Skild AI’s acquisition of Zebra’s Robotics Automation business will create the first organization that can provide a full end-to-end automation solution for warehouses: humanoids for pick-place, robotic dogs for inspection, robotic arms for packing, AMRs for material movement, and an orchestration layer to control them all.