Meet, Find, Follow: Comparing 3 Ways to Automate With Order Fulfillment Robots
Updated: June 19, 2025
Ready to unlock order picking efficiency in your warehouse, distribution center, or e-commerce fulfillment operation? Autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) can improve order fulfillment accuracy, increase operational throughput, and help you stay flexible as demand patterns shift. When considering implementing an AMR fulfillment solution, it’s important to compare your options and pick the right robotic system for your operations’ unique challenges and needs.
Why Fulfillment Robots Matter in 2025:
- Labor shortages and rising e-commerce demand are pushing warehouses to automate.
- Order picking is the biggest bottleneck—and opportunity—for efficiency gains.
- Onward Robotics’ Meet Me fulfillment solution redefines how humans and robots collaborate.
- Our intelligent fulfillment robots increase speed, accuracy, and worker satisfaction.
When investing resources and time into selecting and implementing an order fulfillment automation solution, it’s important to understand and evaluate which autonomous mobile robot (AMR) system approach aligns to your organization’s KPIs, supports your workforce, and enables your operations to meet service level agreements (SLAs) and keep up with demand.
In fulfillment warehouses, talent is scarce and resources are tight, yet customer expectations remain high. As supply chain leaders look to do more with less, automating traditionally manual processes has shifted from a “nice-to-have” to a “must-have,” safeguarding warehouses from ongoing labor challenges and variations in customer demand. The order picking process is widely reported as one of the most costly and resource-heavy processes within a fulfillment warehouse.
Legacy mobile robotic systems on the market offer various methods to coordinate and connect human and robotic workforces for order picking. However, gaps remain in implementing technology that reduces warehouse manager and picker effort as well as click-to-customer turnaround time.
How Fulfillment Robots Improve Order Picking Workflows
Ongoing labor challenges and unpredictable swings in demand have warehouse and distribution center managers looking for flexible and easy-to-implement automated solutions. In Instawork’s annual state of the warehouse report, 64% of respondents said they had to forgo business worth more than 25% of their revenue in 2022 because of staffing issues.
Warehouse jobs boomed with e-commerce growth during the pandemic, but now leaders are shifting investment to automate processes to reduce costs and increase productivity. With temporary or flexible workers in the warehouse on the rise and layoffs affecting full-time workers across the industry, relying solely on manual labor to keep up in an on-demand market is no longer a sustainable or dependable strategy.
As supply chain leaders search for opportunities to increase margins and grow revenue, identifying operational processes to automate that boost productivity while reducing costs will have the most impact. What activities are most critical in meeting customer expectations and budget? In Peerless Research Group’s 2023 Automation Study, picking efficiency (lines picked per hour) was reported as the top area for improvement in warehouse and distribution center operations over the next two years. In end-to-end fulfillment processes, accuracy and speed are key to successfully meeting SLAs.
Introducing robotics can optimize the picking process, significantly reducing worker travel and errors while providing the agility to adapt when swings in demand occur.
As robotic technology continues to evolve, it remains a partially manual process to fulfill customer orders. Therefore, when automating order picking, it is not simply automating manual tasks and determining the proper picking method, but orchestrating and optimizing how human workers and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) work together. How workflows are assigned, orchestrated, and communicated across resources is critical to increasing uptime and pick rates. This is where various AMR system vendors used in warehouses and distribution centers (DCs) begin to differ.
Using Autonomous Mobile Robots to Connect and Coordinate Resources in Your Fulfillment Center
With humans and robots working together, task assignment, labor balancing, and communication are key to executing efficient and seamless workflows. Legacy AMR systems for order fulfillment have traditionally offered two worker/robot workflow orchestration models: “follow me” and “find me.”
The “Find Me” Model
In the “find me” or swarm model, many warehouse robots roam a zoned area. Pickers are required to find and select a robot that has work available, typically indicated by a flashing light or color on the tablet attached to the robot. In both models, human workers are dependent on robots to initiate and complete picks. Operations managers must also ensure proper people zoning and management to prevent downtime and maximize resources. Maintaining and increasing productivity can be challenging if work isn’t continually monitored and allocated properly across all zones and robots.
The “Follow Me” Model
In the “follow me” model, pickers are assigned to one warehouse robot, and their picking speed is limited by the speed of that robot. This model requires the picker to follow the robot in order to complete picks; the picker is then directed by the user interface on the tablet mounted on the robot for pick location and instructions. With “follow me” AMRs, picking speed can be affected by the mounted tablet: if pickers forget what they need to pick or how many, they may need to walk around the robot to confirm the information, wasting valuable seconds.
Meet Me: A New Approach to Automating Order Fulfillment
Onward Robotics’ Meet Me fulfillment solution is driven by Pyxis orchestration software that coordinates humans and fulfillment robots separately in their own directed workflows. In this unique model, pickers are empowered with the information they need using the Pyxis Point mobile app. They can move independently, meeting their robotic counterparts at the pick location. Since pickers don’t need to rely on the AMRs for directions or pick information, downtime spent waiting on or finding a robot is eliminated. Warehouse managers also save time without the need to plan or coordinate human and robot resources.
Task assignment and labor balancing are directed by Pyxis software and catered to each customer’s operational needs. Resources are prioritized and planned based on distance, priority of orders, and robot dwell time for continuous and fast fulfillment. Since both individual workflows are optimized, this innovative approach doesn’t require a swarm of robots or additional travel by the picker to maintain productivity.
Working Better Together to Improve Warehouse Operations
Orchestration of resources optimizes workflows, however, successful implementation, adoption, and ongoing usage of robotic automation also relies on optimal human and robot interaction. Workers filling these roles continue to change, with 69% of businesses leveraging temporary and flexible workers year-round in their operations–up from 57% in 2021. Considering increased turnover and temporary labor, training needs to be simple, repeatable, and quick. The repetitive work of order picking should be easy and engaging in order to increase employee satisfaction, minimize physical strain, and boost productivity.
Achieve Faster Cycle Times with Visual Task Allocation
Legacy AMR systems for order fulfillment rely on a combination of a tablet user interface mounted to the robot and lights on the robot to direct the worker to the proper location, SKU, and quantity for picking. In both the “find me” and “follow me” models, pickers need to properly locate their robot counterpart. Once picking, they must determine the proper tote, shelf, and associated quantity for each line item utilizing the user interface and select robot lighting.
With our Meet Me® fulfillment solution, associates meet their robot at the location specified on their mobile device. They are guided through the pick visually using the Pyxis Point user interface. Put-to-light shelving on the Lumabot® ensures accurate and simple order picking each time. Workers are informed and enabled, resulting in faster cycle times.
Fulfillment Robots Deliver More Capacity and Improved Ergonomics
With over 5% of warehouse workers impacted by work-related injuries and over 2% of cases resulting in days away from work, improving ergonomics with robotic automation can keep pickers happier and more productive.
Capacity
Manual order picking typically involves workers pushing heavy carts to complete an order. Legacy “find me” and “follow me” fulfillment robots offer robotic platforms that can be configured to accommodate different payload dimensions and weight, however, most used in fulfillment have limitations.
Onward Robotics’ Lumabot is capable of handling payloads
of up to 450 lb. with configurable shelving that is
wide enough to accommodate larger individual SKUs, taking
on the physical labor of pulling heavy carts while moving orders throughout the warehouse.
Grab Efficiency
Both the “follow me” and “find me” models utilize a fixed
tablet adhered to the robot to communicate the SKU location
and quantity to the picker. Onward Robotics’ Pyxis Point
mobile application improves pick efficiency and reduces
wasted movement for the picker by providing the information
they need–on arm via their wearable device–as they are picking.
Pickers can view the total quantity needed and distribute
throughout the assigned totes using patent-pending put-to
light shelving which indicates the proper tote and quantity per tote. Workers are armed with the information they need to pick safely, quickly, and accurately.
POWERED PRODUCTIVITY
Fulfillment robots don’t take breaks, but just like their human team members, they need energy to perform. Continuous fulfillment relies on autonomous mobile robots being fully charged to keep moving products throughout the warehouse, distribution center, or fulfillment center. Both “find me” and “follow me” AMR systems utilize power recharging stations. These stations take robots off the floor to power up. Lumabot AMRs use a lithium-ion battery that lasts up to two shifts without a charge and can be hot-swapped during operations, reducing downtime and keeping fulfillment flowing.
Order Fulfillment Automation Is More Accessible Than Ever
When investing resources and time into selecting the right robotics solution for the specific needs of a business, it is important to understand and evaluate a number of factors. Consider which AMR system approach aligns with your KPIs, supports your workforce, and enables your operations to keep up with demand and meet service level agreements (SLAs).
Our unique Meet Me fulfillment solution revolutionizes fulfillment workflows: reimagining how humans and robots work together by creating a more collaborative, efficient, and flexible fulfillment team. Meet Me increases operational efficiency and eliminates downtime in warehousing, distribution, and fulfillment centers.
To learn how Lumabot fulfillment robots combined with Pyxis orchestration software can transform your fulfillment center directly from one of our experts, contact our sales team today!
