Geek+ unveils CARE strategy during first Global Smart Logistics Summit

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Oct 15, 2019, 06:08 ET

Company introduces Geek+ Cloud Brain: AI at your fingertips
Geek+ to invest at least $150 million in AI R&D over the next three years

NANJING, China, Oct. 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Geek+, a global leader in advanced robotics and AI technologies announced today the launch of its three year "CARE" strategy. The announcement was made during the Company's inaugural Global Smart Logistics Summit in Nanjing, gathering nearly 400 global clients and technology partners across a wide range of industries to discuss key issues and technology trends impacting the global supply chain. Geek+ CARE, namely Customer focus, Artificial Intelligence, Robots as a Service and Ecosystem-Enabling, will be the engine of the Company's global growth in the next three years.

In his keynote speech, Yong Zheng, founder and CEO at Geek+ said: "Our vision is to become a global AI robotics leader, to build a smart infrastructure and service network based on robotics technology and strategic partnerships, integrating more and more technology and industrial partners to help customers achieve a digital, agile and intelligent supply chain. To realize this vision, we will steer our growth in four dimensions: customer focus, technology innovation based on AI R&D, business innovation through Robot as a service business model and industry integration with a supply chain ecosystem. The CARE strategy."

Labor-intensive industries are being transformed by technologies, impacted by lack of available labor and increasing costs. In parallel, high requirements for personalization and diversification have made product life cycles shorter, bringing business instability and demand issues to which rigid automation systems are not adapted. "For companies in retail, apparel and manufacturing, agility is a now a vital need. This is why flexible and scalable robot systems and shared-service models will dominate. We are working with our partners to apply AI, robotics and Internet of Things where they can have the biggest impact. Logistics is the logical first step," added Yong Zheng.

Geek + CARE

1. Customer-focused: From China's third largest ecommerce platform VIP.com, global powerhouses like Nike, Decathlon, Dell, Toyota and DHL, to special projects such as Shenzhen's 1.2 million book Baoan library, Geek+ has become the go-to provider of high tech logistics solutions. Understanding customer needs and strengthening industry knowledge is key to consolidating market leadership. The logistics robot industry is rapidly returning to basics. Companies are not only concerned with improving efficiency, but with reliability, ease of use and safety. Geek+ will further strengthen industry know-how by leveraging its technological advantages, while accumulating operational experience and building a global service capability to create real, comprehensive business and social value for customers.

2. Artificial Intelligence-driven: Artificial Intelligence technologies are the heart of Geek+ solutions, with an R&D team of over 400 engineers including a dedicated AI algorithm research team. With CARE, Geek+ will focus on two main directions for AI R&D:

(i) Robots AI: Improving the autonomy of robot navigation and perception: getting the robot to listen, think and see better.

(ii) Logistics AI: making logistics smarter and more efficient, solving comprehensive optimization issues in robot scheduling, inventory management, and order execution.

Geek+ will also work on specific application scenarios in different industries, accumulating data to continuously improve robot and system capabilities through machine learning.

In the next three years, Geek+ pledges to invest no less than $150 million in robotics and AI R&D.

3. Robot-as-a-Service: With its innovative "RaaS" business model, Geek+ operates over 200,000 square meters of smart warehouses and has built a shared-network of thousands of robots. This robot-sharing service model helps customers reduce initial investment and lowers market entry barriers, while improving efficiency and decreasing overall operating costs. It makes robots attainable and affordable to businesses of all sizes. Under CARE, Geek+ will further expand its robot service network to help customers build reliable and efficient warehousing logistics capabilities in a very short time, respond quickly to market demand and seize business opportunities.

4. Ecosystem-enabling: Geek+ is committed to working with exceptional technology and supply chain companies to create a strong technological and industrial ecosystem, and jointly form an intelligent and agile supply chain.

(i) Technology Ecosystem: Geek+ partners with global leaders such as Microsoft, Intel and ABB in the fields of cloud computing, Internet of Things, and robotics, to provide customers with a total integrated smart logistics solution. In this ecosystem, Geek+ supports technology partners with its understanding of the logistics industry, smart solutions design capabilities and the ability to provide a global service.

(ii) Industrial Ecosystem: Geek+ partners with logistics real estate developers, 3PL companies, express delivery and transportation companies, manufacturers, retailers and brands to open up upstream and downstream, promote synergies and accelerate the overall transformation of the supply chain. As the logistics technology leader in the supply chain ecosystem, Geek+ will drive the ecosystem to create a new generation of digital, agile and intelligent supply chain for customers through technology and the concept of smart logistics.

Geek+ Cloud Brain for accessible AI and higher efficiency

During the Summit, Geek+ unveiled the first act of CARE: Geek+ Cloud Brain. The Geek+ Cloud Brain is a cloud-based application platform as a Service (aPaaS) system which allows customers to easily reconfigure their solutions and deploy them through the cloud, freely dispatching robots and various devices in a highly flexible and intelligent system. Geek+ Cloud Brain significantly reduces the difficulty of implementing and operating smart logistics, making AI at your fingertips.

Geek+ Cloud Brain has three major advantages:

Close to no coding: As an aPaaS platform, Geek+ Cloud allows users to drag and drop modules without almost no need to code, through an easy-to-use system interface. The customer can quickly develop and integrate features to tweak and even redesign the solution to respond to business changes.
Robot and other device operating system: Users can schedule and command different types of robots and equipment through the OS features realizing the digitization and automation of the solution. Hundreds of different type of devices can work together, including mobile robots, forklifts and conveyor belts.
Cloud-computing service model: Customers can opt to have the solution running on the cloud. The cloud platform can be a private cloud or operated by global cloud providers, making the system scalable, easy to deploy and easy to maintain.

Hongbo Li, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Geek+ said: "Smart logistics robotics technologies have rapidly developed in recent years, but the complexity of the system and abundance of dark data make them difficult to operate. In reality, the solutions can require many engineers to operate them efficiently, which hinders cost reduction and efficiency gains. With Geek+ Cloud Brain, we have solved this problem, making AI technology accessible and easy to use, at the tip of the customer's fingers."

Geek+ Cloud Brain is already implemented in Geek+ warehouses, and can serve customers around the world. "The system is ready to support the millions of orders we will process on next month's 11/11 Shopping Festival," added Hongbo Li. Geek+ is the first independent logistics robots company to provide customers with a cloud robotics smart logistics platform.

About Geek+

Geek+ is global technology company leading the intelligent logistics revolution. We apply advanced robotics and AI technologies to realize flexible, reliable and highly-efficient solutions for warehouses and supply chain management.

Our R&D team brings together the brightest robotics, computer science and AI engineers with industrial engineers that have deep understanding and proven experience in supply chain management, enabling us to offer truly comprehensive intelligent logistics solutions to our customers. As such our team develops tailored solutions to a wide range of industries, including ecommerce, apparel, retail, logistics, 3PL, pharmaceutical, and manufacturing.

Geek+ has successfully completed over 200 projects across four continents, deploying more than 7,000 robots. Founded in 2015, Geek+ has over 700 employees and is headquartered in Beijing, with offices in Germany, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore.

For more information please visit: https://www.geekplusrobotics.com/

SOURCE Geek+