Yes, I wondered that from the first demonstration months ago. I've got no doubt that sufficient suction can be generated for the needed lifting forces, but indeed, will the packaging tolerate it?
While my shop doesn't do a huge amount of shipping and is not a big shipper, and most boxes can tolerate it, I can definitely think of both outgoing and incoming boxes I wouldn't want to see picked up by the top... .
It's absolutely insane to me that this thing works with suction caps and isn't designed to actually pick up the boxes by supporting the weight from the bottom. That would seem like such a basic requirement for any boxes with relatively heavy payloads.
i've only got limited experience working in a warehouse, but i'd assume that yes, they can safely assume that any box packed loose in a shipping container or truck doesn't need to be supported from the bottom.
suction on the side or top isn't really any different from a human packer grabbing it with a hand on each side. heavier things that really need bottom support would usually be shipped on pallets.
I took a tour of the Celestial Seasonings tea company in Boulder, Colorado many years ago and they had a robot arm for loading pallets very much like this one, except it was fixed to the floor. It had the same suction type mechanism and would grab boxes off a conveyer and stack them on pallets to be shipped out. It was very efficient at it's job and definitely was the highlight of the tour for me, even if it wasn't intended to be. Boxes full of tea are not very heavy, but certainly weigh more than an empty box. The point being is the suction mechanism for picking up boxes has been around for a long time (20+ years?), is tried and tested, and in this very article claims it can handle boxes of up to 50 pounds.
Eventually they will need a solution which can grip boxes more like a human (especially being able to adjust grip to handle boxes that begin to deform).
This one-side suction system will obviously fail if the box itself cannot hold its contents without ripping or deforming.
I would rather see the robot get better than we start using bigger boxes with lighter loads just to make it easier for the robots. I already receive too-big boxes and too much paper packing stuffing.
> isn't really any different from a human packer grabbing it with a hand on each side. heavier things that really need bottom support would usually be shipped on pallets.
That certainly explains the sad state of a couple of heavy packages I've received recently after clearly making similar assumptions and being mishandled in shipping.
I would think the boxes have to be spec'd to contain the suspended weight of whatever is inside them anyway. I doubt they can depend on always being supported from the bottom throughout the whole delivery chain.
When watching the video the first thing I noticed was how perfectly stacked and uniform in size and shape the boxes were. It hinted at being able to lift a specific non-box object (spot mini) but I feel it wasn't a realistic representation of actual cargo loads.
Also, unloading is only part of the problem. Loading is more like a game of tetris. Only you have to make sure the packages don't crush one another, topple over, and use the space efficiently. Keeping in mind that some packages are heavier/lighter/bigger/smaller than others or oddly shaped (think tires, weights, chair etc.).
I was thinking something similar. Have a conveyor below the gantries that you can drop boxes onto/into, and that conveyor moves the box to the desired location behind the picker.
This doesn't really work when there is no conveyor to drop boxes onto, though.
Boxes are easier to stack and move especially if you are handling Amazon volumes of goods. Quite often the amount of items that can be carried by a truck or plane is limited by their weight not size, so it may not be as wasteful as it seems.
I don't think this is as much of a constraint as you'd expect. Imagine you manage to pull 1 psi over a 10x10" patch of box. That's 100lb of lifting force. If you're worried about whether the cardboard can handle it spread the area and lower the pressure more. I don't think 1lb per square inch of cardboard would be an issue and it looks like they have more surface area for suction than that.
IIRC, some boxes are intentionally oversized, in order to completely fill the truck, so that things don't move around. That's not going to change because of this new machine.
Fulfillment centers are large enough that shipping them in individual boxes may actually be the cost-effective method at times.
I've also heard they play a bit of a game of tetris to fill truck trailers in a way that completely stuffs them full enough that packages don't move around.
This is very dangerous especially if the box gets inverted. Also, you might get stuck under other cargo in a non-climate controlled storage area, or have a forklift poke into you. Mosy anyone who has worked in shipping or receiving has seen really damaged boxes.
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