In October, DHL named Jacobi Robotics as the winner of its Fast Forward Challenge, Americas Edition. The competition invited logistics innovators, startups, and businesses to test their systems in a real-world environment. The winner can join DHL’s innovation ecosystem and exhibit in DHL Innovation Centers worldwide.
“At DHL, we are committed to fostering an open, collaborative approach to innovation, addressing logistics challenges head-on through trend research, technology expertise, and an ecosystem of proven partners,” said Dr. Klaus Dohrmann, vice president and head of innovation and trend research at DHL Customer Solutions & Innovation.
Bonn, Germany-based DHL is part of DHL Group. The logistics provider has more than 400,000 employees in over 220 countries and territories worldwide.
Save the date for the 2026 Robotics SummitDHL selected from three Fast Forward Challenge finalists
In its seventh edition, the Fast Forward Challenge took place across four regions and brought together decision-makers from diverse parts of the supply chain sector under the theme “Navigate What’s Now and Shape What’s Next.” DHL said the challenge demonstrated its commitment to advancing resilient and sustainable supply chains.
More than 65 companies entered the competition, according to Yahav Avigal, co-founder and chief technology officer at Jacobi Robotics.
“As part of the process, we submitted information including a video about Jacobi as a company and about our technology, along with information about market traction,” he told Automated Warehouse. “There was a bunch of criteria, and then the next stage was connecting with DHL’s innovation group directly.”
“The Fast Forward Challenge has attracted remarkable submissions from participants across the Americas region and beyond,” stated Katja Busch, chief commercial officer and head of customer solutions and innovation at DHL. “This program enables visionary companies to broaden their networks and test their solutions at scale within DHL’s global network.”
Three finalists presented their systems to more than 500 executives from DHL’s largest accounts at its DHL Now & Next Logistics Summit in Austin, Texas.
Bloodhound Tracking Device Inc.: This integrated hardware and software Internet of Things (IoT) system includes a secure cloud back end. It is intended to deliver “end-to-end supply chain security and pinpoint locational intelligence, complete with tamper-proof cargo integrity verification.”
Revoy: The Revoy Electric Dolly is a device that attaches between a semi-truck tractor and trailer, converting it into electric hybrid and reportedly reducing fuel usage by 90%. It features a four-minute battery swap, enabling electric long-haul transportation while lowering diesel consumption and operational costs.
Jacobi Robotics: The Emeryville, Calif.-based company designed its Mixed-Case Palletizer for random mixed palletizing in warehouse operations. The system uses AI to optimize pallet stacking, enables efficient handling of cardboard boxes and shrink-wrapped trays, and achieves high volume utilization, according to Jacobi. The robot can also reduce the costs, errors, and injuries associated with manual labor, it said.
Jacobi Robotics explains its mixed-case technology
“Mixed-case palletizing is done manually across thousands of warehouses, and existing solutions require a lot of floor space to automate the picking process,” Avigal said. “To stream boxes in a specific sequence might require building a completely new warehouse, and only a small fraction of customers can do that.”
Jacobi Robotics tried to mimic human processes with its robot, making no assumptions about boxes, he said. It also use a buffer to comply with business rules, such as placing crushable items on top of the stack.
“The key enabler is our real-time motion planner, combined with our ability to test different stacking strategies with AI,” said Avigal. “This dates back to 2022, when we started productizing our technology. A generalized motion planner made development of new applications very fast and efficient.”
“We have lots of experience in palletizing,” he recalled. “We started with single-SKU palletizing, then did mixed palletizing. The last piece of technology is digital twins, using simulation to prove the system to the customer.”
At ProMAT earlier this year, customer interest in mixed-case palletizing was very strong, and Jacobi’s system and buffer can do it on the fly, Avigal said.
AI helps unlock a large market
The DHL Fast Forward Challenge winner was chosen through a combination of jury and audience votes, Avigal explained.
“What made this award special is that it was chosen by supply chain executives, not a small committee, and that it was any innovation,” Avigal said. “It could have been IoT or blockchain, but they chose robotics and AI.”
“We’re thrilled to recognize Jacobi Robotics as the winner,” said DHL‘s Busch. “Our jury and summit audience recognized the potential their solution has to significantly transform how logistics addresses safety challenges in warehouse pallet stacking.”
“DHL was excited that we had solved random sequencing. We’re already reviewing multiple opportunities to deploy this technology at the company,” Max Cao, CEO of Jacobi Robotics, told Automated Warehouse. “Our first mixed-case deployments are happening with public companies in the U.S. With 80 million cases stacked per day in the U.S., that costs more than $10 billion annually.”
Jacobi Robotics also offers a depalletizing system, and integration with truck-unloading robots is a natural possible step, said Avigal.
“We’re very focused on supporting our integrator partners — this is a complete software stack, not just a computer vision module and a camera, but also integrated with robot controls,” he said. “It can run on any six or seven degree-of-freedom arm. We put a lot of effort into software and intuitive user interfaces.”
“We’re also focused on sim-to-real calibration to make sure that digital twins are accurate to physical cells,” said Avigal. “That’s what will unlock scalability.”
There was a $20,000 cash reward associated with the challenge, and Cao said his company plans to grow its team to meet demand.
