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San Antonio company Plus One Robotics not only leverages AI to enhance warehouse management operations but emphasizes that humans remain integral to the process. “We build robot systems for warehouse automation. Most robots are in manufacturing, we build robots to deal with applications inside warehouses, a lot of material handling and movement,” said Erik Nieves, co-founder and CEO of Plus One Robotics.“Most of what we use AI for is processing an image. So, we use cameras, special 3D cameras to look at the packages or the items that need to be picked and then AI helps us discriminate that image and say, here’s the different surfaces that you can pick.
Nieves said while AI is transforming warehouse operations, humans continue to play a significant role. “AI, as good as it is, it can’t keep up with that rate of change, but you and I can. We use humans to sort of augment when the AI is insufficient, a person jumps in and says, ‘yep, I see what you need to do’ and tells the robot remotely. And that’s why the company’s called Plus One, because you add one human being and watch just how much more effective the systems are,” Nieves said.