Next Leap for Robots: Picking Out and Boxing Your Online Order

Robot developers say they are close to a breakthrough--getting a machine to pick up a toy and put it in a box. It is a simple task for a child, but for retailers it has been a big hurdle to automating one of the most labor-intensive aspects of e-commerce: grabbing items off shelves and packing them for shipping. HBC -1.08% and Chinese online-retail giant JD.com Inc., JD 0.37% have recently begun testing robotic "pickers" in their distribution centers. Some robotics companies say their machines can move gadgets, toys and consumer products 50% faster than human workers. Retailers and logistics companies are counting on the new advances to help them keep pace with explosive growth in online sales and pressure to ship faster.