Rebl Industries, a Swedish robotics company, has signed significant framework agreements with global fashion and design companies H&M and IKEA Svenska AB to deploy its next-generation robots-as-a-service (RaaS) solutions.

H&M and IKEA have signed major agreements with Swedish robotics company Rebl Industries to deploy its AI-powered robots-as-a-service (RaaS) in warehouses.
The robots automate tasks like sorting and palletising, boosting efficiency without upfront costs.
To drive global expansion, Rebl named ex-Volvo executive Nicholas Tengelin as its first external CEO.

The AI-powered robots have been successfully used in real production environments for years. They are designed to automate tasks like sorting, palletising, and depalletising – relieving warehouse staff from repetitive and physically demanding work. The robots are deployed rapidly as a performance-based service, without requiring a large upfront investment, an approach challenging traditional automation models.

Now, Rebl is entering a new phase with comprehensive agreements with H&M and IKEA. Since the summer of 2024, H&M has been using Rebl’s  robots at its Nordics online sales warehouse in Sweden. This combination of process supporting technology and teamwork has produced positive results, by enhancing production predictability and efficiency. More locations are planned to follow.

To accelerate its global expansion, the company has appointed Nicholas Tengelin, a seasoned executive from the automotive industry, having held senior leadership roles at Volvo Cars, Hedin Mobility Group and Hogia, as its first external CEO. His mandate is to rapidly scale and industrialise Rebl’s position as the global leader in next-generation robotics.

“We’re excited to partner with international companies like H&M and IKEA. Our AI-powered robots quickly step into warehouse operations, supporting a decrease in repetitive tasks for employees and an increase in overall efficiency. This game-changing technology opens new automation possibilities for sectors previously unable to leverage robotics,” says Nicholas Tengelin, CEO of Rebl Industries.

While robotic automation has long been common in automotive and industrial manufacturing, the warehousing industry is now going through similar transformation. Rebl is disrupting the industry by offering robots-as-a-service, with the unique advantage that customers pay for the work performed rather than the hardware itself.

The robots, equipped with proprietary software, AI, and advanced sensors, can identify, pick, move, and load unsorted goods of varying sizes and packaging in real time. They feature an intuitive interface for human interaction and are part of a neural network that enables shared learning, continuously improving their performance. These capabilities remain rare in traditional automation but have been proven in Rebl’s real-world deployments over several years.

Founded in 2018, Rebl Industries operates out of Gothenburg, Borås, and Skövde in Sweden. Since 2021, the company has been backed by the privately owned Pulsen Group, led by Jonus Bartholdson.

“This is just the beginning. Bringing Nicholas onboard is a major step toward building a leading robotics hub and scaling our solutions globally. With his leadership, alongside our talented team and strong partnerships, Rebl Industries is well-positioned to make a meaningful impact in warehouse robotics,” says Alexander Westerling, Co-founder of Rebl Industries and CEO of Pulsen Fusion.

Note: The headline, insights, and image of this press release may have been refined by the Fibre2Fashion staff; the rest of the content remains unchanged.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (HU)

When Snowy 2.0 is in the news, it’s usually about money. The cost of the huge project has gone well beyond the initial A$6 billion estimate and will now cost more than $12 billion.

But cost overruns don’t affect the real value of this pumped hydro project. When it comes online—likely in 2028—Snowy 2.0 will bring something fundamentally new to the Australian electricity system: energy storage at a scale far beyond anything else.

It will have five times more storage than all of Australia’s other pumped hydro and grid batteries combined, its capital cost is five times lower than batteries per unit of energy storage, and its lifetime is ten times longer than batteries. Our calculations show Snowy 2.0 will cost about one cent per day per Australian over its 150-year lifetime, assuming the final cost is between $15 billion and $18 billion.

Australia is aiming to have 82% of its electricity supplied by solar, wind and hydro in five years’ time, while coal generation declines rapidly. Storing variable renewable energy for later use will keep electricity supply reliable.

That’s where Snowy 2.0 and other planned large pumped hydro projects come in. Coupled with grid-scale batteries, these energy storage methods will allow us to wean ourselves off gas power.

How will Snowy 2.0 work?

Snowy 2.0 is an expansion of the original postwar Snowy Hydro Scheme. It links two existing reservoirs with a 27-kilometer tunnel and underground hydropower station. When power is cheap, water will be pumped uphill to the top reservoir. When power is expensive, water will run back downhill through the hydro station to produce electricity.

The project will be able to store 350 gigawatt-hours of energy—the equivalent of 7 million electric vehicle batteries, or 350 large grid batteries.

There has been skepticism over whether Snowy 2.0 will be able to perform as intended due to constraints in how much water can be moved around the system.

In fact, the Tumut River system, around which Snowy 2.0 is constructed, has plenty of flexibility, including five interconnected reservoirs with a total capacity 30 times larger than required for Snowy 2.0, and six hydropower stations.

Pumped hydro and batteries solve the energy storage problem

For years, Australia’s grid operators have relied on gas-fired power stations to meet sudden demand. Unlike coal, gas can fire up within minutes. The problem is, gas is no longer cheap, and now generates only 5% of east coast electricity. East coast gas prices have tripled since LNG exports began in 2015, inflating household power bills.

Gas has been a necessary evil to keep the grid reliable. But it’s now possible to begin displacing it using a combination of short-term storage in batteries and long-duration storage in large pumped hydro such as Snowy 2.0.

Batteries and pumped hydro are already replacing gas and coal generators in stabilizing the grid. Energy storage now keeps Australians powered during increasingly common sudden failures of aging coal power stations, or when transmission lines are damaged.

On sunny and windy days, Australia now regularly produces more electricity than it can use. As a result, wholesale electricity prices can become negative. This means energy storage companies are being paid to take and store excess electricity.

It’s hard for coal stations to shut down and restart quickly. As a result, they now scale back as far as possible when prices are low or negative. Their inability to shut off entirely means some cheap, clean wind and solar can’t be used. Coal is still dominant in overnight generation.

Grid batteries do a superb job of discharging stored electricity at high power to cover regular peak-demand periods in mornings and evenings when solar energy isn’t flowing and energy prices are high. These periods are usually brief, meaning the amount of battery energy needed is relatively small.

But batteries are an expensive way to store enough energy to cover electricity demand for longer periods. That’s because very large quantities of battery chemicals and metals are required. At these times, fossil fuel generators make a lot of money as there’s currently no alternative.

This is where large-scale pumped hydro comes in. Snowy 2.0 and other pumped hydro projects can help meet regular morning and evening peak demand and can also provide much of the electricity required overnight. Pumped hydro uses stored water, which is extremely cheap.

Snowy 2.0 is large enough to generate flat-out for a whole week if needed. This means it can do two useful things at once: meet demand from the grid, and help recharge grid batteries when solar and wind are scarce.

Pumped hydro can act as insurance against high prices. A third of Snowy 2.0’s revenue is expected to come from long-term contracts with retailers, renewable generators and large industrial users.

Snowy 2.0 could snatch a substantial portion of the energy market currently occupied by coal and gas. Building several more large pumped hydro systems would make it possible to get rid of coal and gas altogether.

Fewer new transmission lines

Interstate transmission lines are essential. If one state is wet and windless, power can be imported along transmission lines from neighboring states with better weather. But many planned transmission lines have run into issues with rural pushback and slow construction speeds.

Large pumped hydro systems make it possible to avoid building some expensive and politically fraught new transmission lines.

If each state or territory had one large pumped hydro scheme, it would reduce the need for more transmission lines by using low- or negative-cost electricity on sunny and windy days to pump water uphill. This would reduce import requirements.

Australia has 23,000 potential pumped hydro sites, far more than we would ever need. Of these, we have identified 315 as premium sites in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania. South Australia and Western Australia also have good options, albeit at higher cost.

A good option for energy storage is to build pumped hydro in hilly country and grid batteries near cities to reduce grid congestion and avoid the need for more transmission lines.

For example, Tasmania’s pumped hydro allows the state’s wind energy to be exported to Victoria continuously, maximizing the usage of expensive undersea cables. Used in conjunction with batteries near Melbourne, Tasmanian wind can meet high-value morning and evening peak loads in Victoria.

Big project—but big benefit

When Snowy 2.0 comes online, it won’t be long before it proves its worth. Operating alongside grid batteries, it will help push expensive gas generation out of the grid.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Tesla might be an electric auto maker, but CEO Elon Musk has made clear that he thinks of it as much more: an innovator in artificial intelligence and software, a builder of world-shaking robots. He’s also argued that Tesla should be worth a lot more than it is today: up to $20 trillion, he posted in July, more than five times the current worth of Nvidia.

Musk has also made it clear that he wants to get paid, a lot. In November, Tesla shareholders will vote on the board’s proposal to pay the CEO a remarkable $1 trillion over the next decade. The deal would also increase Musk’s stake in Tesla from 13 percent to a quarter. But Musk would only get that big figure—and the extra control—if he hits a series of ambitious metrics, including 20 million vehicles delivered, 1 million robotaxis in commercial operation, and an $8.5 trillion valuation. And also, 1 million Optimus humanoid robots delivered.

On a call with investors on Wednesday, Musk locked on to that last point to make his most threatening argument for a gigantic payday yet. “My fundamental concern with regard to how much voting control I have at Tesla is, if I go ahead and build this enormous robot army, can I just be ousted at some point in the future?” he said. “If we build this robot army, do I have at least a strong influence over this robot army? Not control, but a strong influence … I don’t feel comfortable building that robot army unless I have a strong influence.”

Generally, Musk talks about Tesla’s Optimus project as more of a force for peace than war. He’s said that Optimus will upend the job market and free humanity from the drudgery of work. (“Working will be optional, like growing your own vegetables, instead of buying them from the store,” he posted this week.) Elsewhere on the investor call Wednesday, he said that Tesla’s robots would “actually create a world where there is no poverty, where everyone has access to the finest medical care.”

Optimus, he added, “will be an incredible surgeon, and imagine if everyone had access to an incredible surgeon.” For Tesla, Optimus will be “an infinite money glitch,” Musk said, arguing that everyone will want a humanoid robot who can do their work for them.