AI camera counting for crates, pallets and cages
Count reusable assets that carry no label from one phone photo. Rotion's AI counts the stack, checks it against the order, and flags the difference.
Last updated: 2 October 2026
Rotion counts reusable assets from a photo. A driver, a store employee or a depot worker takes one picture of a stack, a pallet or a roller cage, and Rotion's AI counts the assets in it, compares the count to the order, and turns a mismatch into an exception. The assets do not need a QR code, barcode or tag.
When do you count instead of scan?
Counting fits flows where assets have no individual identity, or where scanning each code would take longer than the handover allows. Typical cases are unlabeled crates and trays at a store backdoor, exchange pallets at a dock, and mixed stacks handed over by a driver on a tight schedule.
Counting and scanning answer different questions. A scan says which asset moved and who holds it; a count says how many moved. Many fleets combine them: serialized scans where an asset's history matters, counts where the balance per partner is enough. See asset-level vs balance-level tracking.
How does AI camera counting work in Rotion?
The count runs in the Rotion scan app as part of a normal handover:
- Open the handover in the scan app, linked to the order or the partner.
- Take a photo of the stack, pallet or cage.
- Rotion's AI counts the assets in the photo and shows the count.
- The person confirms or corrects the count, and Rotion compares it to what the order expected.
- A difference becomes an exception on the partner's balance, with the photo attached as proof.
Because the photo stays in the record, a disputed count can be checked later by anyone with access, instead of being one person's word against another's.
How is it different from batch QR scanning?
Batch QR scanning reads the codes on every asset in a stack, so it returns both the count and the IDs. AI counting needs no codes at all, so it returns a count without identities. Use batch scanning where assets carry codes and you need their history; use AI counting where they do not, or where a balance per partner is all the flow needs.
What does a count update in Rotion?
A confirmed count updates the balance of the partner involved, in the same way a set of scans would. Deposits and charges that depend on the balance follow from it, and the five-stage reuse loop treats a short count like any other exception: flagged, assigned and followed up.
Count instead of scan?
BLE and parent-child tracking for roller cages and RTIs
BLE tags, gateways, and parent-child trackers give returnable assets a location between scans, without a GPS tracker on every asset. How Rotion uses them.
Geofencing for returnable assets
Draw zones around depots, customers and partner sites. Rotion records when tracked assets enter, leave or linger, and starts the follow-up automatically.