Online supermarket Ocado is set to introduce a new radio system for its warehouse automation.

The company will use this new system to control 1,000 machines, reports Logistics Manager.

In addition to this, Ocado is currently building two new fulfilment centres in Europe, located in Andover and Erith.

Believing that the system is unique, the retailer is looking to control and coordinate the warehousing and distribution of thousands of crates.

Developed by Cambridge Consultants, the system's technology offers Ocado a 100 per cent reliable wireless connection ten times a second to each of the 1,000 machines per access point.

Operations director for Ocado Mark Richardson said that the technology "is a crucial part of the advanced proprietary automation, which will power our next-generation warehouses and those of our partners".

He continued on to say that the ground-breaking automation technology was in line with the Ocado business model, which aims "to push the boundaries of efficiency, modularity and scalability".

The system is based on the same telecoms technology employed by 4G, but the Ocado system can support "1,000 devices from a single base station".