AI-driven robot orchestration: Scaling Otto Group’s logistics with a digital twin
How a digital twin enables Otto Group to coordinate multi-vendor robot fleets, boost efficiency, and future-proof global logistics sites.
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The goal
Intelligently coordinate logistics robots for faster deliveries and better customer service
The scenario
Beyond isolated automation:
Solving multi-vendor complexity
As Europe’s largest online retailer of domestic origin, the Otto Group handles massive order volumes for brands like Heine, Bonprix, and Manufactum across 120 logistics locations every day. The company already leverages a range of AI-powered robotics solutions, but the growing diversity of systems led to significant bottlenecks.
Isolated robotic fleets could not communicate with each other or with the central Warehouse Management System (WMS). Coordinating human operators with multiple robot types required substantial manual effort. Testing new warehouse layouts or workflows in live operations also posed risks to daily operations. To scale effectively, Otto Group needed a centralized, vendor-agnostic orchestration system to unify and streamline its robotic ecosystem.
The solution
The “Robotic Coordination Layer”:
A new standard in intralogistics
Roboverse Reply supports Otto Group in implementing a central virtual control model. As a first step, the experts created a digital twin of the Hermes fulfilment logistics centre in Loehne, Germany. This digital twin forms the operational foundation of the “Robotic Coordination Layer” developed by tech and consulting Provider Otto Group one.o. This layer enables the training, simulation and orchestration of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) from different manufacturers, bridging the gap between hardware and the core warehouse management system (WMS). It allows:
Seamless orchestration
The “Robotic Coordination Layer” empowers different robotic fleets to communicate and collaborate seamlessly, unlocking new levels of efficiency and adaptability.
Fast onboarding of new robot fleets
The solution enables rapid integration of new robot solutions and quick adaptation to changing requirements.
Real time tracking
With reality capture technologies, the solution can digitally recreate the entire logistics environment in real time, tracking the positions and movements of every robot in operation.
Secure virtual testing
New layouts and AI-driven workflows can be validated within this digital twin before deployment, ensuring seamless operations and minimizing costly downtime. This enables virtual reconfiguration of warehouse areas for process optimization and dynamic simulations to support peak management.
Unified management
A consolidated interface offers teams comprehensive visibility into all robotic actions, reducing the complexity of logistics management.
How we did it
From reality capture to AI-driven simulation
To build a foundation that exactly mirrors reality, Roboverse Reply proceed as follows:
Data capture
Using Boston Dynamics’ mobile robot Spot equipped with sensor and camera technology, Roboverse Reply captured high-fidelity spatial data of the facility without interrupting ongoing operations.3D modeling
The data collected was processed in a complex post-processing workflow and forms the basis for precise 3D models that mirrors the physical site's constraints and logic.AI training
Leveraging NVIDIA Omniverse and NVIDIA Isaac, the team created a virtual testing ground for massive parallel simulations. AI models are trained, and paths are optimized in the digital world before a single motor moves in the physical one.
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The result
Building the blueprint for global logistics
The digital twin of the site in Loehne is more than a local success; it is the global blueprint for the Otto Group. By establishing this technological foundation, Roboverse Reply has enabled a step-by-step transformation of Otto Group’s logistics network into a connected, highly scalable, and future-ready warehouse ecosystem. This shift ensures the Otto Group stays ahead of the competition through faster deliveries, lower operational costs, and unmatched flexibility.
With a strong heritage as a family business and firmly rooted values, the Otto Group is looking to the future with confidence. Over the past 75 years, the company has developed from a catalog-based mail order company into an international digital retail and services group with 36,300 employees and a large number of key companies, brands and holdings in over thirty countries, primarily in Germany, the rest of Europe and North America. Its business activities extend to the Platforms, Brand Concepts, Retailers, Services and Financial Services segments. In the 2024/25 financial year (ending February 28), the Otto Group generated revenues of 15 billion euros. As the largest online retailer of European origin, it is shaping the digital retail and digital services of the future by drawing on its strength, market significance and values. Driven by a passionate and entrepreneurial performance culture, the Group is exploiting its vast market expertise and technological competence to inspire its many millions of customers with high-quality products, unique choice of goods and an array of services. The Otto Group is proof that a value-oriented approach and business success can go hand in hand. Environmental protection has been another corporate objective since 1986.
Roboverse Reply specializes in the integration scenarios around Robotics and Reality Capture with Mixed Reality, where Cloud or On-Premises Infrastructures require Enterprise-Ready solutions. Roboverse Reply solutions include AI Skills with sensor-based anomaly detection, Fleet Management for Internet of Robotic Things, Digital Twins and Business Logic to deliver end-to-end support for the customers. The Roboverse Reply platform enables Autonomous Preventive Inspection to prolong the lifespan of your infrastructures and interactive telepresence, crucial for Safety and Security purposes.