Stow: Robotic Packing of Items into Fabric Pods

TL;DR

This paper introduces a robotic packing system that efficiently and safely places diverse items into fabric pods, achieving high throughput and density comparable to human performance in a large e-commerce warehouse.

Contribution

The paper presents novel hardware, perception, decision-making, and control methods enabling high-speed, dense packing by robots in complex warehouse environments.

Findings

Performed over 500,000 stows in a fulfillment center

Achieves human-level packing density and speed

Prioritizes safety for human workers

Abstract

This paper presents a compliant manipulation system capable of placing items onto densely packed shelves. The wide diversity of items and strict business requirements for high producing rates and low defect generation have prohibited warehouse robotics from performing this task. Our innovations in hardware, perception, decision-making, motion planning, and control have enabled this system to perform over 500,000 stows in a large e-commerce fulfillment center. The system achieves human levels of packing density and speed while prioritizing work on overhead shelves to enhance the safety of humans working alongside the robots.