DEPLOYDatabase

ExplainersIndustrial robotics

What is the Ocado Smart Platform?

The Ocado Smart Platform (OSP) is grid-based grocery-fulfillment automation licensed by Ocado Group of the UK. Fleets of bots work across a dense storage grid called the Hive, coordinated by a central AI. DEPLOY records 13 named partners including Kroger and Morrisons, 72 million orders shipped in FY2025, and a contracting US footprint.

Key facts

Form factor
amr
Maturity
commercial
Verified deployments
3
Maker
Ocado Group
formFactor
amr (grid-based grocery-fulfillment automation; bots on a 'Hive' grid)
classification
grid-bot AS/RS (the Hive grid + bots directed by central AI 10x/sec), NOT a free-roaming AMR
Ocado Group on the registry →

On the record

Ocado Technology's look inside 'The Hive,' the closed three-dimensional storage grid where thousands of bots perform goods-to-person grocery fulfillment. Facility-bounded autonomy: the fleet is coordinated by a central control system communicating many times per second, not open-world autonomy.

What it is

The Ocado Smart Platform, or OSP, is grocery-fulfillment automation licensed by Ocado Group (London; LSE: OCDO), based in Hatfield, UK, and founded in 2000. Rather than selling robots outright, Ocado licenses the whole platform to grocers to run their online orders. DEPLOY records it at commercial maturity.


How it works

Inventory sits in a dense three-dimensional storage grid called the Hive. Fleets of bots drive across the top of the grid, retrieving bins and delivering them to pick stations, coordinated by a central AI control system that issues instructions many times per second. DEPLOY files it as a grid-based automated storage and retrieval system, not a free-roaming mobile robot.


Scale and named partners

Ocado reports 13 named OSP partners, including Kroger, Morrisons, Sobeys, Coles, and Aeon, and 72 million orders shipped in FY2025 (the 52 weeks to 30 November 2025, up 26 percent) across 122 modules.


A verified caution

The US footprint is contracting. DEPLOY records that Kroger scaled back, closing several fulfillment centers in January 2026 and cancelling a Charlotte site, and paid Ocado 350 million dollars in compensation. This is an active, event-driven status, worth re-checking.

For how DEPLOY separates verified facts from claims, see verified-vs-claimed.

Frequently asked

Who makes the Ocado Smart Platform?

Ocado Group, based in Hatfield, UK (LSE: OCDO), licenses the Ocado Smart Platform to grocers rather than selling the robots outright.

What is the Ocado Hive?

The Hive is Ocado's dense three-dimensional storage grid. Fleets of bots drive across the top of it to retrieve bins, coordinated by a central AI that issues instructions many times per second.

Is Ocado's US business shrinking?

DEPLOY records that Kroger, Ocado's main US partner, scaled back in January 2026, closing several fulfillment centers, cancelling a Charlotte site, and paying Ocado 350 million dollars in compensation.

Verified vs claimed

Verified
  • Verified: Ocado Group (London; LSE: OCDO) licenses the Ocado Smart Platform (OSP), grid-based grocery-fulfillment automation (the 'Hive' grid with bots). 13 named OSP partners (Kroger, Morrisons, Sobeys, Coles, Aeon, ICA, etc.); FY2025 (52wk to 30 Nov 2025) shipped 72M orders (+26%) across 122 modules.
Claimed / roadmap
  • No outstanding claims on file.

Split from the registry record. See the verified-vs-claimed framework.

Where it is deployed

3 verified deployments on the registry for the Ocado Smart Platform. Click any marker to open its primary-source record.

Explore the deployment map

See where these robots are verified operating, by place and type.

More questions people ask

View all 21 explainers in industrial robotics

Every robot coming to market, tracked and verified.

DEPLOY is the registry of physical AI: every company, model, deployment, and safety record, with the sources behind each one. Browse the humanoids, robotaxis, drones, and delivery robots being deployed right now.

Explore the DEPLOY registry →

Most-tracked robots

For builders & agents

Query this explainer’s entities as structured data.

← All explainers