Online retailer Zappos.com has just commissioned a team (a batallion?) of Kiva Robots to help them with their warehousing needs.  That means if there is an order from a client (crate-able goods), a Kiva Robot will surely be notified of that and off it goes to get that for you in no time.NO SINGLE POINT OF FAILURE, is the banner statement you’d see if you surf over www.kivasystems.com .  Quite a statement, eh?  Check it out:

The Kiva Mobile Fulfillment System (Kiva MFS) uses a breakthrough new approach to order fulfillment - one that simultaneously improves productivity, speed, accuracy, and flexibility. With the Kiva MFS, operators stand still while the products come to them. Pallets, cases, and orders are stored on inventory pods that are picked up and moved by a fleet of mobile robotic drive units. As a result, any product can go to any operator.

Kiva is known to have great dependence on their software.  They have said that it can control a warehouse to bare bones efficiency.  The system would know which robot is the closest to an item, it will know what the best in-warehouse route from pick-up point to the requesting operator, it will know the traffic from point A to B.That is a huge feat!If you’re as huge as www.zappos.com , you would want that system pretty much.