The piece-picking robots will help the retailer automate operations and offer next-day delivery to over 98% of the U.S., according to the developing business.

Dive Brief:

• Staples has deployed piece-picking robots from RightHand Robotics across its fulfillment centers in North America to automate its operations, Brendon Bielat, VP of product and marketing at RightHand, told Supply Chain Dive in an email.
• The autonomous robotic arm uses AI and machine learning to suction and grip items with various shapes, sizes, weights and packaging, Amit Kalra, EVP and supply chain officer at Staples, said in a LinkedIn post.
• The technology is already live in multiple fulfillment centers in Staples’ network with more rollouts set to happen, Kalra said. The company did not disclose specific locations.

Dive Insight:

Over the past three years, Staples and RightHand worked together to expand the capabilities of the RightPick system — from handling a wide range of items such as markers to containers of coffee or reams of paper, Bielat told Supply Chain Dive.

A combination of advancements were made to the entire picking system, Bielat added. There were “enhancements to the machine vision system, RightPick AI, new picking and grasping strategies used by the RightPick system, and advanced multipick and exception handling to ensure picking accuracy.”

These new features have doubled the range of items that the RightPick system can handle and reduced the required interventions by 80%, according to the release.

Staples is also using the technology as a way to add efficiency to its operations even while the robots are not actively picking items.

“When the arms are not picking orders for our customers, they are picking thousands of items to practice, learn and perfect the picking approach for new items, just like a human would learn,” Kalra said in the LinkedIn post.

While the retailer has been actively working to offer shorter delivery-times to its customers, the RightPick system is expected to help Staples offer next-day delivery to over 98% of the U.S., according to the release.

In August 2023, Staples partnered with DoorDash to offer deliveries from nearly 1,000 U.S. stores for same-day delivery in under an hour on average. In 2020 the company also offered same-day delivery with Instacart.