Self-Taught Robot Is Ready to Seize Another Warehouse Job

A keen-eyed new robot looks poised to snag an important everyday warehouse job. Kinema Systems, a startup based in Menlo Park, California, has developed a robot capable of breaking down pallets of boxes no matter what size or shape they are or how they are packed together. This is a routine job at thousands of large stores, warehouses, and shipping companies--the aftermath of goods making their way through the supply line to your front door. The new robot uses a simple suction system to grab boxes, but it needs state-of-the-art computer vision and machine learning to figure out how to grab them. The machine does not need to be programmed at all--instead, it automatically calibrates itself and teaches itself how to break boxes down.