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Technology targeted for warehouses fulfilling e-commerce orders or delivering large SKU range for stores. Automated warehouse picking startup RightHand Robotics Inc. has launched a demonstration of its each-picking robotic arm, bringing its technology out of a stealthy development mode, the company said Sunday. In a demo for attendees at the National Retail Federation (NRF’s) annual convention in New York City, the Cambridge, Mass.-based tech startup showed off a system that used machine vision and a robotic arm with a suction-powered tip to pick a variety of single health and beauty items and to compile personalized kits in sealed polybags. The product is targeted for supply chain hubs such as warehouses that struggle to fulfill e-commerce orders or deliver greater SKU range for stores, RightHand said. Those demands are rising as omnichannel fulfillment trends require on-demand, flexible, accurate piece-picking, and DCs need to pivot from handling cases or pallets of products to shipping individual units. A growing number of tech firms are offering solutions to automate the painstaking and time-intensive work of picking and packing individual items, known as “eaches” to fulfillment professionals. Future versions of RightHand’s technology will offer grasping fingers in addition to the suction tool as an option for the end of the robotic arm. That flexibility allows RightHand to focus on each picking, distinguishing it from tote-based robotic picking options from companies such as Locus Robotics and Six Rivers , co-founder Yaro Tenzer said in an interview. Another feature that could distinguish the company from other automated material handling vendors is that RightHand plans to sell the technology in a low-cost, “robotics as a service” model, offering robotic performance for warehouses based on an hourly rate, Tenzer said. RightHand grew out of a team of researchers from the Harvard Biorobotics Laboratory, the Yale GRAB Lab, and […]