RobotRisk Autonomous Systems Incident & Risk Register
RobotRisk / warehouse automation / Ocado Intelligent Automation

Ocado Intelligent Automation

Products: n/a. Risk band: Elevated   RobotRisk index 22.6/100 (incidents/exposure, time-weighted) · 99th percentile of 273 warehouse automation companies.

Analyst brief

The record contains two fire entries: a 2019 fire that destroyed the Andover fulfilment centre following a robot battery-charger fault, rated severity 4, and a 2021 fire at the Erith facility following a three-bot collision on the storage grid, rated severity 3. Both events involve fire originating from the automated storage-and-retrieval grid system, indicating a repeated failure mode tied to the grid's battery and collision-avoidance systems rather than an isolated incident. The index of 16.4 and 98.9 percentile place Ocado in the elevated band within warehouse automation, reflecting this two-event pattern across a two-year span. The record is press-driven, arising from facility-fire reporting rather than a regulatory recall action.

Entries by year and severity

012021 S3: 1121
S1S2S3S4S5

By incident type

By severity

RobotRisk index vs warehouse automation alternatives

Comparisons over time

RobotRisk index over time

Yearly entries vs category average

fire over time vs category

Incident log (2 unique incidents)

SevDateTypeLocationIncidentSource
S307/2021
~12:30 UK
fire Erith, London, UKErith fulfilment centre fire after three-bot collision on the grid · 3 robots involved; <1% of grid damaged… The Register
S4 fire Andover, England, UKAndover CFC destroyed by fire after robot battery-charger fault · 1 full customer fulfilment centre dest… Hampshire Fire and Rescu

Alternatives in warehouse automation

AmazonRobot Palletizer (Dallas)Dearborn Mid-WestAttaboticsDematicSSI SchaeferMHS Global1MRobotics
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