Why Omni Rack Robotics
A new automation category for the warehouse you already have.
Omni Rack Robotics—or ORR—brings autonomous movement to existing rack infrastructure. It connects storage levels and aisles without making a ground-up warehouse rebuild the starting point.
The category
What Omni Rack Robotics means.
ORR describes a system that treats the rack—not just the floor—as a robotic operating environment. The result is coordinated access to storage across height, depth, and aisle.
Connected movement
Robots move beyond a single floor path or fixed aisle, linking the storage network into one addressable environment.
Infrastructure first
The warehouse rack becomes part of the automation layer, preserving useful infrastructure where configuration and condition allow.
Autonomy with control
Mobile hardware, orchestration software, safety logic, and operating data work together as a managed material-flow system.
The brownfield automation gap
Between floor robots and a full rebuild, there is another path.
Many operating warehouses need more storage access and movement capacity, but cannot justify designing the building around a new fixed system. ORR is built for that middle ground.
Manual movement
Flexible, but dependent on walking, lifting, and repeated travel.
Floor-based AMRs
Automate horizontal transport while storage access remains a separate step.
Omni Rack Robotics
Extends robotic movement into rack levels and across the operating footprint.
Traditional ASRS
Purpose-built, fixed automation typically designed around dedicated infrastructure.
ORR makes existing infrastructure an automation asset—creating a practical route to higher-density, software-orchestrated operations.
How the category works
A robotic system that sees the whole storage environment.
Address the storage location
Inventory positions become software-defined destinations within a mapped rack and aisle environment.
Travel vertically to inventory
Rack-native mobility brings robotic access to usable storage height, not only to floor-level handoff points.
Handle real warehouse containers
The system is designed around operational loads such as totes, cartons, and cases, subject to the validated application.
Move from aisle to aisle
Transfer paths allow robots to serve more of the storage footprint instead of remaining captive to one aisle.
Coordinate through software
Orchestration assigns work, manages traffic, monitors state, and connects the robotic layer with warehouse workflows.
Six defining principles
What makes a system ORR.
Omni Rack Robotics is not one machine or one feature. It is an operating model built around these connected capabilities.
Rack-native
Works with compatible rack infrastructure instead of requiring proprietary storage to define the entire solution.
Multi-level
Brings autonomous travel to multiple rack elevations so vertical cube becomes part of the robotic workflow.
Aisle-connected
Allows robotic resources to be shared across aisles through planned transfer routes and fleet coordination.
Container-compatible
Supports validated totes, cartons, and cases so automation can align with the loads an operation actually handles.
Software-defined
Uses mapped locations, task logic, traffic management, telemetry, and integration to coordinate physical flow.
Progressively scalable
Creates a path to begin with a defined workflow or area, validate it, and expand as operating requirements evolve.
Designed for operating warehouses
Strongest where the building is real—and the constraints already exist.
ORR is especially relevant when an operation needs to improve movement and storage access while preserving more of its current facility.
Brownfield facility
You have a live operation, useful rack, and limited appetite for wholesale infrastructure replacement.
Underused vertical cube
Storage height exists, but accessing it efficiently creates travel, equipment, or labor constraints.
Variable demand
Volume, SKU profile, or order mix shifts enough that flexibility matters alongside automation.
Phased capital plan
You want to validate a defined application and create an evidence-based path to broader deployment.
Choose the right automation model
AMRs, traditional ASRS, and ORR solve different parts of the problem.
The best choice depends on the building, inventory, process, risk tolerance, and required flow. This comparison frames the role of each.
This is a category-level comparison. Actual capability, performance, cost, and implementation depend on the selected system and operating configuration.
ORR, made operational
Carte+ turns the category into a working system.
Carte+ is Cartesian Kinetics’ first Omni Rack Robotics system. It brings together rack-native robotic hardware, coordinated movement, and the software intelligence required to operate in a live warehouse.
eCarte+ validates the application and operating assumptions before broader deployment. The Digital Twin models the environment and helps evaluate system behavior. CarteCloud connects orchestration, visibility, and operating data.
Carte+ robotics
Rack-native movement, retrieval, and transfer in the physical environment.
Software intelligence
Mapping, orchestration, traffic control, telemetry, and operational visibility.
Digital validation
Application assessment, modeling, and evidence for configuration and scale.
A practical path to automation
Start with the operation. Scale with evidence.
ORR adoption can follow a measured path from application fit to an expanding operating system.
Assess
Define the workflow, rack, inventory, safety, and integration constraints.
Model
Use operating data and the Digital Twin to evaluate configuration and flow.
Deploy
Introduce a validated system around a defined application or area.
Measure
Track system behavior, operating data, exceptions, and workflow outcomes.
Scale
Expand robots, aisles, workflows, or sites as the operating case develops.
Your warehouse. A new operating model.
See whether Omni Rack Robotics fits your operation.
Bring us your rack, inventory profile, workflow, and constraints. We’ll help identify where ORR may create the strongest operating case.
Omni Rack Robotics
What Makes ORR Different?
ORR delivers high-throughput automation without forcing operators to replace their racks, containers, facilities, or existing operational investments.
Works With Any Rack
ORR does not require rack replacement. Whether you use standard shelving, mezzanines, or high-bay storage, Carte+ installs directly onto existing infrastructure—without teardown or reconstruction.
No Proprietary Totes
Continue using the bins, cartons, cases, and packaging formats already supporting your operation. ORR does not require a packaging overhaul to achieve high-speed automation.
Throughput That Delivers
Increase picking productivity by up to 5x compared with manual processes without requiring a pristine facility or a capital-intensive infrastructure rebuild.
Installs in Weeks, Not Months
Move from signed contract to go-live in fewer than six weeks, with minimal construction, no specialized floor preparation, and limited disruption to active operations.
Scales One Aisle at a Time
Begin with a single aisle and expand throughout the facility at your own pace, with limited integration cost and minimal interruption to forklift and associate workflows.
Optimized for Real-World Conditions
- Works with non-pristine warehouse floors
- Avoids floor traffic through an overhead robot path
- Operates in narrow aisles and mezzanines
- Supports high-bay storage environments
Integrated With eCarte+
Every Carte+ deployment begins with a high-fidelity physical-digital twin. Simulate layout options, test real order profiles, validate projected ROI, identify operational bottlenecks, and virtually commission workflows before installation.
Built for Brownfields. Designed to Adapt.
Automation should improve what companies already have—not force them to tear it down and start over.
Cartesian Kinetics is rewriting the warehouse automation playbook around a simple belief: automation should improve what companies already have—not force them to tear it down and start over.
That belief led us to create Omni Rack Robotics (ORR), a new category designed specifically for brownfield facilities where space is constrained, labor is scarce, and operations cannot afford extended disruption. ORR combines the flexibility and scalability of AMRs with the performance of ASRS—without the rigid infrastructure and operational limitations.
Our flagship solution, Carte+, is the world’s first ORR system. Its retrofit-first, rack-native architecture brings scalable automation to 3PLs, ecommerce fulfillment centers, retail distribution centers, and manufacturing facilities of virtually any age, shape, or size.
Combined with digital-twin validation, Carte+ enables operators to validate the complete automation strategy before deployment—reducing risk, improving performance, and building a stronger business case.