From the warehouses of major logistics and e-commerce companies to local fulfillment centers, one of the biggest challenges in automating parcel handling is the sheer variability of items that need to be processed. Boxes, polybags, envelopes, and mailers come in an endless array of shapes, sizes, and materials. Automating the singulation and induction of these items onto conveyors and sorters is an unsolved problem that has vexed the industry.

San Antonio-based Plus One Robotics believes it has cracked the code with the launch of its new InductOne system. A dual-arm robot specifically engineered to excel at high-speed parcel picking, InductOne combines cutting-edge vision, grasping, and material handling capabilities honed from over 1 billion successful picks in real-world deployment.

"Parcel variability is a significant challenge of automation within the warehouse," stated Erik Nieves, CEO of Plus One Robotics. "That's why InductOne is equipped with our innovative individual cup control gripper, which can precisely handle a wide range of parcel sizes and shapes."

At the core of InductOne is Plus One's proprietary cup gripper that can reliably singulate and grasp parcels of different sizes, shapes, and surfaces. But the system goes beyond just picking - it's intelligent enough to identify and avoid inducting non-conveyable items that should be diverted to an exception handling area.

"It's not just about what InductOne picks, it's also about what it doesn't pick," Nieves explained. "The system avoids picking non-conveyable items, allowing them to automatically convey to a designated exception path and preventing the robots from wasting precious cycles handling items which should not be inducted."

With its dual-arm design working in parallel, InductOne significantly outperforms traditional single-arm robotic pick solutions. While a typical single-arm robot tops out around 1,600 picks per hour, the coordinated motion of InductOne's two arms enables sustained rates of 2,200 to 2,300 picks per hour, with peak rates up to 3,300 picks per hour.

Plus One has focused on making InductOne as compact and lightweight as possible to ease deployment, even in space-constrained brownfield environments. The modular system can be flexibly configured inline or parallel to cross-belt or tray sorters.

The high-performance arm that powers InductOne draws from the millions of cycles of real-world picking experience Plus One has accumulated working with companies like FedEx and The Home Depot. Computer vision, artificial intelligence, and a culture of trusted customer partnerships have been essential to making InductOne a reality.

"We've doubled down on parcel handling; we're not an each picking company," said Nieves. "Vision and grasping for materials handling is hard, and Plus One continues to focus on packaged goods, which spend most of their time as parcels and can be picked by vacuum grippers."

As e-commerce continues to grow, mastering parcel automation is key to fulfillment and logistics operations running smoothly. With InductOne, Plus One Robotics is unleashing a powerful new solution to meet the challenge.