Retailers and e-commerce businesses are increasingly relying on robotics and artificial intelligence to fulfill orders quickly and accurately. RightHand Robotics Inc. today announced a multi-year agreement with Staples Inc. in which the RightPick item-handling system will automate picking operations at Staples’ fulfillment centers.
The companies stated in a release that they expect to achieve higher service levels and next-day delivery to more than 98% of the U.S. Framingham, Mass.-based Staples said it has been an innovator in the U.S. market for more than 35 years, managing a distribution and fulfillment network with various levels of AI and automation.
“We have always valued automation, and we see it as the future of e-commerce picking,” said Amit Kalra, chief supply chain officer at Staples. “After evaluating other solutions, the RightPick system met our high performance and reliability standards, picking items with different shapes, packaging, sizes, and weight.”
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RightHand releases RightPick 4
A DARPA challenge-winning team from the Harvard Biorobotics Lab, the Yale GRAB Lab, and MIT founded RightHand Robotics in 2015. The Charlestown, Mass.-based company said its data-driven platform uses computer vision and machine learning to provide flexible and scalable automation for predictable order fulfillment.
The RightPick system is an autonomous item-handling robot powered by advanced hardware, a sensor suite, and the RightPick AI software. RightHand said it is “designed for a wide range of end-to-end warehouse tasks.”
The system offers damage-free picking across a broad range of items and provides performance, throughput, and safety, claimed the company. RightHand recently released RightPick 4, which it told Mobile Robot Guide increases the flexibility and reliability of the system.
Staples system has greater range and reliability
Through close collaboration with Staples, RightHand Robotics said it developed new features that have nearly doubled the range of items that a RightPick station can handle while reducing the number of required interventions by 80%. These advancements have could benefit a wide range of industries and applications beyond Staples, noted the company.
“Our RightPick system sets a new standard in the flexibility, autonomy, and reliability of warehouse robotics,” said Brian Owen, CEO of RightHand. “We’re thrilled that Staples recognized the benefits of using our technology to further enhance their automation strategy. It’s great to team up with an established industry leader to optimize their fulfillment operations.”
