While investment in robotics and automation continued apace in November 2020, the total amount was about half of what it was in the same month a year ago.

Ocado, a leading British online supermarket, has acquired two U.S.-based robotics companies for $287 million in hopes of making its warehouses more efficient. Ocado purchased San Francisco-based Kindred Systems, which specializes in robotic piece-picking, for about $262 million and Las Vegas-based Haddington Dynamics, a developer of low-cost robotic arms, for about $25 million. The acquisitions…