Kiva drive unit

A low, square robot that slides under a shelving pod, lifts it and drives it to a human picker by following barcodes on the floor. The smaller model lifted about 1,000 lb and a larger pallet model about 3,000 lb; top speed was 1.3 m/s.

Price: —Not sold separately after 2012; Amazon bought Kiva for about $775 million in cash
Height: —Not published
Weight: —Not published
Payload: 454 kgCarries more than 62%
Speed: 4.7 km/hFaster than 47%
Battery: —Not published

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Why it matters

Its robots popularised the goods-to-person warehouse model in which squat robots carry whole shelving pods to a seated picker.

Real-world use

Used by retailers such as Gap, Walgreens and Staples before Amazon bought Kiva in 2012 and stopped outside sales.

Timeline

First shown: 2003
Released: 2012-03

Kiva Systems co-founded by Mick Mountz, Peter Wurman and Raffaello D'Andrea; exact first public robot showing remains unverified

Maker

Kiva Systems (now Amazon Robotics)Company · founded 2003 · North Reading, Massachusetts, USA

How it stacks up

Against other working & field robots that publish the figure. Pick a measure.

Kiva drive unit is faster than 47% of the 86 other working & field robots that publish a speed. Bars show the 7 closest in date.

Speed 4.7 km/h 0.4 km/h40.2 km/h #46 of 87 · faster than 47%

Not published by the maker: height, weight, joints, battery, price.

Public attention

A historic robot: no longer sold or in use, so it is not ranked against current machines.

No Wikipedia article of its own yet
1 news story from reputable press listed on this page
1 reported deployment

Measures how much people read and write about a robot, not how good it is. Measured 2026-10-14; same method for every robot. How it is measured

What’s inside

The parts the company has talked about publicly.

Movement: Wheeled base
How it runs: Fully autonomous. Directed by central software, it found, lifted and delivered shelving pods by itself, following floor barcodes.
Actuators & motors: Battery-powered drive unit that slides under a storage pod and lifts it with a corkscrew action; top speed about 1.3 m/s.
Sensors & vision: Reads bar-code stickers on the floor for navigation; collision-avoidance sensor.
Battery & power: Recharged for about five minutes each hour.
AI & software: Central Kiva software assigns the nearest robot to fetch the pod holding each ordered item and bring it to a picker.
Other details: Two models: a small unit (about 0.6 x 0.76 m, 46 cm tall) lifting 450 kg, and a larger unit carrying pallets up to about 1,400 kg. Distinctive orange.

From the maker

Kiva drive unit is the only machine from Kiva Systems (now Amazon Robotics) in the atlas.

Made, sold and where

Unit counts are usually company figures; analysts often disagree.

Price: Not publishedNot sold separately after 2012; Amazon bought Kiva for about $775 million in cash
How to get one: No official buying page found
Built: Not disclosed; Amazon reported more than 200,000 warehouse drives by 2019 (descendants included)
Sold or delivered: Sold to outside retailers until Amazon bought Kiva for about $775 million (deal announced 19 March 2012); outside sales then stopped
Where it is sold or used: Kiva Systems, North Reading, Massachusetts
Customers and pilots: Gap, Walgreens, Staples, Gilt Groupe, Office Depot, Crate & Barrel, Saks Fifth Avenue, Amazon

Where it works

1 reported deployment.

Map

Trial ended

Gap, Walgreens, Staples and others

Retailers such as Gap, Walgreens and Staples used Kiva robots before Amazon bought the company. IEEE Spectrum

News

The latest 1, newest first. Summaries are ours; tap through for the original.

2012-03-19
Amazon to buy Kiva Systems
Amazon announced it would acquire Kiva for about $775 million in cash, keeping its headquarters in North Reading.
Amazon.com (via SEC filing)

Sources

Figures come from press coverage. Every link below backs something on this page.

National Inventors Hall of Fame Mick Mountz U.S. SEC Amazon Form 8-K exhibit: Amazon to acquire Kiva Systems meche.mit.edu Kiva drive unit: how it is operated

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