HAI Robotics HaiPick A42

What it's for

The HaiPick A42 is an ACR (Autonomous Case-handling Robot) from HAI Robotics of Shenzhen: a tall, slender machine that extends a gripper on a mast, picks totes from the racking and carries them to the picking station.

What it actually does: it independently picks and puts away totes and cartons from racking up to 6 meters high, carrying up to 9 at a time. According to independent industry sources it performs 25 to 40 moves per hour per unit. That brings the "goods-to-person" idea into an ordinary warehouse: instead of walking the racks, the picker stands at a station and the robot brings the totes.

Typical applications are:

— e-commerce centers (retail): thousands of small items, high turnover, seasonal peaks;

— 3PL operators (warehouses): varied clients, changing assortment, a need for dense storage;

— general warehouses with tall racking, where every meter of height saves floor space.

The biggest advantage is height: the robot exploits space under the roof that a person without equipment cannot reach. The key point, however, is that the A42 handles totes and cartons, not pallets — for pallets look for another class of equipment, as described in “AMR Robots in the Warehouse”. The manufacturer also offers a telescopic version, the A42T, reaching 12 meters.

Who it's for

Worth considering for: logistics operators and online retailers with a large number of small items, tall racking and a constant struggle to find people for night and seasonal shifts. It works where the assortment sits in totes or cartons of standard sizes.

Probably not for: small warehouses with a few hundred locations — the cost of the system and WMS integration will not pay back. Not for firms that operate mainly on pallets or on products of unusual shapes. Not for those who need local service and fast support: the manufacturer names no distributor in Poland, and availability is not confirmed. If you want to compare different approaches to automation, look at the mobile robots category and pay attention to whether you need a robot for transport, for picking, or for an entire storage system.

Deployments

The sources available name no HaiPick A42 customers or number of systems commissioned; we therefore do not repeat marketing claims without checking. The manufacturer points to 3PL, e-commerce and general warehouses as target industries.

What is available in the category: on the Polish market you can find AMR robots for internal transport, for example AGILOX ONE (through ASTOR) or KUKA KMP 600P (through KUKA Polska), and the MiR solutions described in “AMR Robots in the Warehouse”. These robots haul rather than pick from tall racking, but that is where automation of Polish warehouses usually begins.

HAI Robotics HaiPick A42T — the telescopic version of the same robot, reaching up to 12 meters, up to 9 loads at once, payload up to 30 kg; the manufacturer gives no price. Choose it when your warehouse has very tall racking.

Locus Origin — an American order-picking robot, 36 kg payload, sold on a RaaS subscription. It does not reach into the racking: it works alongside people and carries the picked items. A different philosophy — the robot supports the human rather than replacing them at the rack.

Boston Dynamics Stretch — unloads trucks without SKU programming, up to 800 cases per hour; official price unknown. It is not a picking competitor but a complement at the dock.

AGILOX ONE — a universal AMR with a rent-before-you-buy option, in Poland through ASTOR; for internal transport, not for work at the racking.

MiR250 — an agile AMR with a 250 kg payload for internal transport, price on request from MiR.

HAI Robotics is a Shenzhen company founded in 2016 (HAI Robotics); the sources describe it as a competitor to the AutoStore system. Its HaiPick A42 robot belongs to the ACR class, that is, machines that pick totes directly from racking.

The offer also includes the A42T version, reaching 12 meters in height. No launch date for the A42 or list of later generations is available, so we do not give one. All that is known is that the model is on sale and that the manufacturer targets the 3PL, e-commerce and general warehousing sectors. A comparison with other approaches to warehouse automation can be found in “AMR Robots in the Warehouse”.