#7 techBytes: Edge of automation - where software meets hardware

[in-person event]

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(this greatly helps us with organizing the space and catering for you).

Software and AI meet hardware! We’re excited to invite you to our next techBytes meetup at Ocado Technology, where we’ll explore the intersection of AI, data, software, and product in driving our automated and robotic warehouses.

INTRODUCTION TO OCADO TECHNOLOGY - to give you some background:

The Ocado Smart Platform is a software, automation and robotics platform for online grocery operations. Our technology supports the online operations of 13 of the world’s most forward-thinking grocery retailers around the world. In our Customer Fulfillment Centers (CFCs), thousands of mobile robots (or bots) whiz around on top of a grid of storage containers arranged in stacks. They travel at speeds of 4 metres per second with just milimetres between them. Bots take containers with groceries and containers with customers shopping bags in them to match them up at pick stations for the items to be packed into customer shopping bags. Another exciting technology that supports fulfilment are robotic arms. All technology estate within our CFC’s is controlled by a Control Systems mastermind.

This is how we create the most efficient grocery fulfilment in the world: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssZ_8cqfBlE

ABOUT THE TALKS

During the upcoming meetup, we will discover how our camera calibration algorithm transforms CCTV images into precise grid coordinates, enhancing our robots' efficiency and accuracy.

Then, we will learn about our journey with Platform Engineering, where we unified control systems in the public cloud to boost resiliency and streamline operations. We will demonstrate services that make developing hardware solutions faster and more efficient.

1.

Speaker: Hristo Avramov, Data Science Team Lead

Topic: Learn to see: camera calibration in automated warehouses

Abstract:

At Ocado, we call our grid of storage containers “cells”. As the bots whizz on top of them at a great speed, we like to refer to the platform as “the Hive”. It is the world's densest automated storage system that we know of. CCTV cameras provide continuous visual monitoring of the Hive, as we need to be able to identify each bot at any given time.

To make the most of the visual monitoring data, we need to map camera images to the grid coordinates accurately. This is where our camera calibration algorithm comes in, converting image pixels into real-world grid positions and supporting all our CCTV projects.

In this talk, we'll share the story of developing and implementing this crucial algorithm. You'll hear about the research behind it, how we brought it into production and evaluated its performance. We'll also discuss the challenges we faced, such as adapting to new CFC designs, different camera types, and various grid configurations. We aim to share our experiences and lessons learned with you.

2.

Speaker: Jacek Suchenia, Senior Staff Cloud Engineer and Miłosz Borowiecki, Product Manager

Topic: Platform Engineering @ the Edge

Abstract:

For over a decade, Ocado has embraced Platform Engineering principles, years before they started being more widespread. We started by enhancing our AWS-based platform, the Ocado Smart Platform (OSP), using standardised tools, common rules (Kitemarks, now Hallmarks), and shared services to streamline development.

However, our automated warehouse operations (Customer Fulfillment Centres - CFCs), with robots running on large grids of cells, needed a different approach. It allowed us to use the latest automation technologies.

By unifying our control plane software onto a common platform in the public cloud, we adapted cloud principles like resiliency and failure handling to the embedded space, significantly reducing on-site servers and cutting costs.

As the Edge Platform Engineering team, we now provide three key services: device management, software management, and connectivity. We offer supported hardware, a secure and certified operating system, and seamless device connectivity. Our goal is to give embedded systems a cloud-like experience, allowing developers focus on their code while we handle the infrastructure and complexities.

In this talk, we'll showcase how our processes and services help developers build hardware solutions faster and more efficiently.