Let's Meet Shelfbot
Year
2022
Location
Melbourne, Australia
Company Size
15+ Employees
Before selling Shelfbot to customers, we proved it on ourselves. Every robot we build is kitted from our own Goods-to-Person system in the Melbourne workshop, with hundreds of parts picked and scan-confirmed before assembly starts.
Every robot we ship is built from a kit our own system picked. Hundreds of parts, scanned and confirmed, so assembly starts with everything in hand. It's the same workflow our customers run every day.
— Rob O'Dea, CEO & Founder, Shelfbot
Quick Facts
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Industry | Robotics manufacturing — kitting and assembly |
| Site | Melbourne, Victoria |
| Use case | Kitting parts for robot assembly |
| Parts tracked | 500+ unique components |
| Major assemblies | Platform, Top Car, Mast, Station, Controller, Rails |
| Integration | Bill-of-materials app via the Shelfbot API |
| Picking | Barcode-confirmed, part and quantity |
The problem
Building a warehouse robot means kitting hundreds of parts: motors, pulleys, belts, sensors, cables, aluminium profiles, fasteners and PCBs, across multi-level bills of materials. A missing part stops an assembly, and a wrong part can turn into a reliability fault months later.
With paper pick lists and parts spread around the workshop, technicians spent their time hunting for components instead of building robots, and mistakes surfaced at the bench rather than at the shelf.
What was installed
Shelfbot went into our own workshop as the parts store for the production line. Components live in standardised totes, from bags of screws to pre-built subassemblies, and a fixed pick station sits where the kitting happens.
Our bill-of-materials app talks to Shelfbot through the API. For each robot build:
- The app generates a pick list for each assembly kit.
- The robot presents the tote holding each part.
- The technician scans the part and confirms the quantity.
- The completed kit goes to the assembly bench with every part verified.
Outcome
- Kitting is faster: nobody walks the workshop looking for parts.
- Wrong parts are caught at the shelf, not at the bench, so rework from mis-picks has gone.
- Stock is visible: the app and Shelfbot share one live view of what is on hand, and low stock shows up before a build, not during it.
- Several robots can be kitted at once without kits getting mixed up.
- New technicians follow the scan-guided cycle from their first day.
It is also the simplest proof we can offer a prospect: we build our robots with it, using exactly the workflow our customers run.
System
- Goods-to-Person robots on AS4084 compliant racking
- Standardised totes (720 × 420 × 285 mm) holding components and subassemblies
- Fixed pick station for kitting
- Bill-of-materials app integrated via the Shelfbot API, with multi-level BOM support
- Barcode confirmation on every part and quantity
- Category 3 PL d safety architecture
See it. Understand it. Trust it.
Book a 30-minute demo and we'll show you exactly how Shelfbot would work in your warehouse—with a custom ROI projection for your specific operation.