From September 29 to October 1, Madrid brought together the RAIN RFID community for RAIN in Action 2026, an event dedicated to exploring the latest developments, applications and opportunities for RAIN RFID technology.
PAL Robotics joined the event to exchange insights with industry professionals, showcase its autonomous inventory solution, StockBot, and present a success case alongside TENDAM, demonstrating how RAIN RFID and autonomous robotics can work together to improve warehouse inventory management.
Beyond the demonstrations and conversations, one message stood out: RFID is shifting from proving the technology to scaling deployments and exploring new applications across industries.
From technology adoption to scaling RFID deployments
For Àlex Font, RFID Retail Business Manager at PAL Robotics, RAIN in Action 2026 reflected the growing maturity of the RAIN RFID ecosystem.
Companies are increasingly looking beyond initial implementations, exploring how to expand existing deployments and apply RFID technology to new operational challenges. As Alex highlighted, the event brought together businesses with more than 20 years of experience using RFID alongside organisations introducing the technology in supply chains, warehouses, factories and other industrial environments.
The discussions reflected an industry moving beyond adoption towards making greater use of established RFID infrastructures. And for companies that have already invested in RFID, this raises an important question: how can they maximise the value of the technology they already have?
PAL Robotics and TENDAM: Bringing RAIN RFID further into warehouse operations
One example of this evolution was presented during the End-user Spotlight session, Closing the Gap Between System and Physical Inventory in Distribution Centres.
Jordi Pagès, Head of Intralogistics, Retail and RFID Business Unit at PAL Robotics, joined Jose Alonso Moya, RFID Product Owner at TENDAM, to share their experience implementing autonomous RFID inventory management in a distribution centre.
TENDAM’s RFID journey began with source tagging and software developments in 2021, progressively expanding to stores, omnichannel services and e-commerce operations. In 2026, the company introduced a StockBot pilot to explore how autonomous robotics could extend its existing RFID capabilities into warehouse inventory management.
The collaboration with PAL Robotics began with a proof of concept, progressively adapting StockBot to the specific requirements of TENDAM’s logistics environment. The objective was to address a common challenge in distribution centres: the difference between inventory registered in warehouse management systems and the stock physically present in the facility.
By autonomously navigating warehouse aisles and scanning RFID-tagged products, StockBot provides recurring inventory data that helps operators identify discrepancies, discover unregistered items and improve the reliability of their inventory records.
StockBot at TENDAM: The results
During the session, PAL Robotics and TENDAM shared operational results from the use case, showing the scale of the inventory verification process.
On average, during a single overnight inventory session, StockBot achieved:
The overnight inventory sessions provide TENDAM with recurring data on stock across its distribution centre, helping identify discrepancies between physical inventory and WMS records. This information can then guide further checks and inventory corrections, supporting the collaboration’s broader objective of improving warehouse inventory reliability.
Making the most of existing RAIN RFID infrastructure
For organisations that have already implemented RFID technology, much of the initial investment has been made. Products are tagged, systems are integrated and the infrastructure required to identify inventory is already available. The next opportunity is to extend the value of that investment.
As Alex Font explained in an interview following RAIN in Action 2026, StockBot is an example of how complementary technologies can help companies take greater advantage of their existing RFID deployments.
By combining RAIN RFID with autonomous mobility, StockBot enables recurring inventory scans across warehouse areas, helping identify misplaced products, uncover unregistered stock and flag potential differences between physical inventory and WMS records.
Looking back at RAIN in Action 2026
RAIN in Action 2026 provided an opportunity to connect with the RAIN RFID community, exchange experiences and discuss how the technology is being applied across different industries.
For PAL Robotics, the event offered valuable insights into the industry’s evolution and the growing opportunities to build on existing RFID deployments through complementary technologies such as autonomous robotics.
Interested in exploring how StockBot can complement your RFID infrastructure? Get in touch with our PAL Retail team.