Automated storage and retrieval systems, or ASRS, are sometimes viewed as inflexible. However, AutoStore has continued to add capabilities to its grid storage systems to accommodate more product sizes, reduce downtime, and improve accessibility for small and midsize businesses.
“Autonomy should not require businesses to take a leap of faith,” stated Parth Joshi, chief product officer and president of AutoStore. “The opportunity is to remove the practical barriers one by one. That means reducing variability, manual handoffs, and the operational effort required to keep automated systems running.”
“What we hear directly from customers is also driving us to bring more workflows and use cases onto the AutoStore platform,” he added. “Together, these steps move us closer to lights-out fulfillment. It is not one giant leap, but a series of practical advances that make greater autonomy increasingly achievable.”
Nedre Vats, Norway-based AutoStore said its new and enhanced hardware and software mark the next step in its “path from automation toward autonomy.”
AutoStore expands workflows, adds planning features
The company said its fall 2026 releases span fulfillment workflows, system design, maintenance, and an expanded range of use cases.
“We have the best-in-class cube storage on the market,” Joshi told Automated Warehouse. “We keep getting faster, with more throughput and reliability. A year and a half ago, we added the ability to go into multi-temperature and frozen, which helped us expand in grocery.”
“In the past two years, we’ve added 18 innovations, and we’re adding eight more now,” he said. “We’ve expanded the range of inventory our systems can handle from eaches to cases and chilled, and we’re adding workflows for automated case handling, buffering with FlexBins, and VersaAI software for piece picking.”
AutoStore FlexBinsPort enables mixed-bin picking
“Handling SKU variability is now a baseline requirement, but expanding assortments continue to put pressure on fulfillment operations to accommodate more product sizes without adding complexity, excess capacity, or additional infrastructure,” asserted AutoStore.
FlexBinsPort enables mixed-bin operations at a single workstation by supporting all standard AutoStore bin heights, accommodating goods from shoes to electronics. It is designed in response to customer demand to provide more flexibility to handle different product sizes, simplify operations, and make better use of available space.
AutoStore estimated that the ability to handle all three standard heights in one workstation can improve storage utilization by 10% to 15% while increasing labor efficiency. It plans to release FlexBinsPort in the fourth quarter of 2026.
VersaPort with a robot arm can already be used for induction, consolidating orders, and barcode scanning, according to Joshi.
AutoCase supports both case and each picking
AutoStore said its AutoCase offering allows for broader and more efficient case handling. The system expands the range of workflows that can run within a single AutoStore system by supporting both case and each picking.
AutoCase will support full-size cases up to 600 x 400 mm (12.6 x 15.7 in.), the industry-standard case size, starting in the first quarter of 2027.
In addition, several AutoCase stations will be able to work on the same task group in parallel, supporting a continuous flow of cases for downstream operations such as palletizing and packaging. The capability will be available in the Q1 software release, simplifying integration, said AutoStore.
AutoCase also works with automated box erectors and packing systems, the company added. AutoCase is already operating in live environments at Nowaste Logistics in Sweden and Komplett in Norway.
“We’re focusing on Europe, to be followed immediately by the U.S. and APAC,” said Joshi.
Pio Pal makes automation accessible through RaaS
AutoStore is offering robotic picking to smaller businesses through Pio Pal through a lower-commitment robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) model. For pre-picked orders, Pio Pal can support packing throughput of up to 540 order lines per hour at the workstation, while new pre-picking capabilities can increase performance by up to three times without adding labor.
Single-line pre-picking also addresses a flow that typically represents 40% to 60% of consumer e-commerce orders, the company said. The robotic picking solution is live at Norwegian apparel brand Famme, with further customer adoption planned for Q1 2027.
“We’re bringing Pio to SMBs [small and midsize businesses], back of store, and 3PLs that are just starting up,” Joshi said. “They can run robotic piece picking overnight, tripling performance without adding staff.”
AutoStore is also expanding robotic piece picking across more workflows and system configurations through automated item induction, barcode scanning directly at the workstation, and automated inventory validation through robotic cycle counting. VersaAI now supports additional AutoStore configurations and can be deployed in both new and existing systems.
“Berkshire Grey helped with the software layer, and we do the integration,” said Joshi.
CubeExplore uses AI to help plan investments
With operations across 60 countries, AutoStore said it is able to build AI from extensive data sets.
CubeExplore uses generative AI to help customers evaluate investments and design ASRS with greater confidence, said AutoStore. The return on investment (ROI) modeling tool uses operational benchmarks and comparable project data to help partners and prospective customers build stronger ROI scenarios and business cases.
“It can output a full PDF to take to the CEO using data from thousands of simulations and almost 2,000 sites,” said Joshi.
CubeStudio is a smart design assistant
AutoStore Intelligence in CubeStudio provides AI-powered assistance for solution design and scenario comparison. The company said it can help partners and customers evaluate different configurations and make more informed design decisions before deployment.
“Together, these capabilities help businesses make more confident investment decisions by improving visibility into expected ROI, system sizing, and performance before deployment,” said AutoStore. Joshi added that the can accurately simulate a site to provide performance guarantees.
CubeFleet and CubeAnalytics built to reduce downtime
CubeFleet is designed to give operations teams earlier visibility into maintenance needs, so that an ASRS can run reliably with less ongoing intervention. The product brings maintenance alerts, guidance, and work-order creation into one fleet management view across a single site or multiple locations, said AutoStore.
CubeFleet uses live operational data from the CubeAnalytics platform, as well as predefined maintenance thresholds, to alert teams when service is needed. AutoStore said this allows them to act earlier rather than if they relied only on fixed maintenance schedules. It estimated that this can help reduce unplanned downtime by 35% to 45%.
CubeAnalytics expands visibility across warehouse networks through multi-site views and AI-powered fleet summaries, helping teams quickly identify sites requiring attention.
AutoStore aims to increase autonomy
The company said its latest offerings build on the enhancements to its CubeVerse software portfolio announced earlier this year.
“The CubeVerse platform is powered by AutoStore Intelligence,” explained Joshi. “It helps customers build, operate, and optimize systems, which is what they want. We’ve built it on operational data from almost 100,000 robots and feedback across different vertical industries to make the system smarter and smarter.”
“The market has reacted well to our innovation and the expansion of our portfolio,” he told Automated Warehouse. “We’re tracking toward $700 million in revenue for the year, and we’re working closely with customers to solve their problems for the best throughput and ROI.”