Hikrobot LMR (Latent Mobile Robot)
Photo: Hikrobot (Hangzhou Hikrobot Co., Ltd.)
- type
- latent (under-shelf lifting) AMR
- fleet control
- Hikrobot RCS cluster scheduling with iWMS-1000
- payload kg max
- 1500
- family payload range kg
- 30-3000 across LMR, FMR, CTU
Who's exposed
Jobs in the threat radius
- warehouse order picker
- warehouse tote and shelf mover
- returns processing clerk
- indoor pallet truck operator
Deployment status
Shipping. Hikrobot's own site counts 100,000 cumulative mobile robots by May 2024; a 2026 trade report puts the figure above 180,000 (we have not seen the underlying disclosure). Named customers include Superdry (46 robots at its Burton-upon-Trent DC, 20 at a second European DC) and L&S Engineers (40 AMRs). The Robot Report, citing Interact Analysis, names Hikrobot with Geek+ and Quicktron as the market leaders. The company does not break out LMR units from the rest of its mobile robot line.
When this hits the labor market
Already operating in e-commerce and 3PL warehouses. 1-3 years for shelf-to-person picking roles in sites that can add a robot fleet to existing racking. 3-5 years for the tote and returns handling around it. Mixed-case and pallet work depends on the forklift and carton variants, which are separate products.
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The biggest name we had not catalogued
Ask who sells the most mobile robots, and Geek+ is the answer: 23% of the global AMR market in Interact Analysis’s 2025 report. Ask who is next, and Interact Analysis’s own commentary, as reported by The Robot Report, lists Geek+, Hikrobot and Quicktron together as the leaders. We already carried the first. Hikrobot was missing.
Hikrobot is the robotics arm of Hikvision, the surveillance giant, which held 60% of it as of 2022. Its mobile robot division says 100,000 units were sold cumulatively by May 2024. A 2026 report from 36Kr puts the cumulative figure above 180,000, which would be a big jump, and we could not trace it to a primary disclosure. Take the first number as the firm one. The same report cites 2025 group revenue above 6.45 billion yuan, though it mixes up the currency in its own headline, and the company does not split it between machine vision and mobile robots.
What the LMR actually is
The LMR is a latent robot: a low chassis that drives under a shelf, a rack or a cart, lifts it, and carries it to a station. Trade coverage lists payloads up to 1,500 kg. It is the shelf-to-person pattern that Geek+ also dominates, the one that turns a picker’s walking route into a robot’s. Hikrobot sells it alongside a forklift robot (FMR) and a carton handler (CTU), all run by one scheduling system. We chose the LMR because it is the volume pattern in warehouse AMRs. Hikrobot does not publish per-model sales, so that is our read, not a disclosed fact.
What it does to the floor
Superdry is the clearest case. Its Burton-upon-Trent distribution centre runs 46 robots and a second European site runs 20. Reported picking rose from 90 to 180 units an hour and returns processing from about 100 to 300-350. Those figures come from Hikrobot’s own marketing, so treat them as a ceiling, not an audit. Even halved, they describe a picker who walks far less.
Why we care for LostJobs
Cohort first. Geek+ holds 23% of the market on Interact Analysis’s count, and the same analyst firm says the top 10 vendors’ combined share has barely moved since 2018. A camera maker from Hangzhou that is still named beside the leader tells you the field is crowded, not settled. Hikrobot came from machine vision, which is why it can sell cameras, robots and scheduling software as one package.
The jobs at risk are the ones defined by walking: order pickers, tote runners, returns sorters. Retrofit is the selling point. The company says a standard project goes live in about a week. The sticking point is not hardware cost but the warehouse software that decides where every shelf goes. If your floor still depends on people crossing aisles to find stock, assume a fleet like this has already been quoted for it.