Dexterity AI and FedEx release robotic trailer loading technology

Dexterity AI is collaborating with FedEx to leverage AI-powered robotic technology to load boxes into trucks and trailers.

“Our culture of innovation is driven by a desire to help our team members and customers succeed,” said Rebecca Yeung, corporate vice president of Operations Science and Advanced Technologies for FedEx. “Based on feedback from our operations team, we have been looking for a solution that helps alleviate the challenges of truck loading. Collaborating with Dexterity AI to combine the latest in AI and robotics supports our operations team while meeting growing customer demand.”

Dexterity AI’s proprietary mobile robot design, DexR, gives the robots with a suite of intelligence ranging from the ability to see, touch, think, and move quickly to pack trailers with stable, dense walls of randomized boxes. DexR navigates autonomously to the back of trailers and connects to a powered conveyor system that feeds the robot boxes directly from the sortation system. Then Dexterity AI’s two arm design enables the robot to pick and pack boxes simultaneously.

Some characteristics of the platform include:

• Generative wall planning: With every new box presented to the DexR, Dexterity’s AI software assesses wall-build possibilities to pack trailers with tight, stable walls.
• A sense of touch: Dexterity AI-powered force control gives the robots a sense of touch so they know how to nudge boxes together while creating packing walls.
• Machine learning-based pack improvement: Machine learning helps ensure that with every box picked, the Dexterity AI truck loading software becomes more efficient and experienced.
• Integrated motion planning: By integrating its own trajectory and motion planning, the Dexterity AI platform helps the DexR’s two arms move quickly inside trailers without colliding with each other or the truck walls.

FedEx is currently testing DexR’s robotic truck-loading technology, and Dexterity AI hopes to commercially deploy the system in the future. DexR’s official unveiling took place at the companies’ joint event “Unlock the Dock” in San Francisco on September 26, 2023.

For more information, visit www.dexterity.ai.