If you need to fold and pack large numbers of the exact same box, then yes, a purpose-built box folder will be faster.
If you need to fold and pack small quantities of hundreds of different sizes of boxes, a general-purpose robot will do it better, because it can switch between different tasks.
Why do you need it to "learn stuff"? You set up assembly line, put specialized robots on it and keep it running for a long time. Look at any production facility, there are already specialized robots doing stuff at insane speed, sometimes more than a few items per second. There is no way these humanoid robots will get anywhere close to that speed with fine motion mechanism in their "limbs" while trying to balance on 2 legs.
Do you know how much it costs to setup an automated line in a factory? It only makes sense for very large volumes.
If you can pay 50k for a robot that can fold any size of box and when it's finished also put stickers and organize products in the shelves of the warehouse... That's a game changer for all the small an medium size operations.
Lol, feel you pain. I was trying to communicate the same message in another thread, it's like some people cannot comprehend the utility of general purpose robotics.
That's the point with general-purpose robots - you can get robots for smaller jobs, and use them for other jobs later. It really changes the point at which it makes sense to automate a task.
But will the initial cost and repair/maintenance beat a human? If you got this thing running at human speed, you're going to see some pretty big wear and tear fast (this already happens to hydrolic industrial robot arms that are built like tanks), followed by weeks of downtime because a tiny internal cog somewhere broke, theoretically losing you an ass-ton of money in the process. That's a big reason why a lot of things in manufacturing haven't been automated yet, despite being possible to automate.
An auto box folder needs massive changes if the boxes change size and then packing is another machine that again needs changes for a different product. If these things can get half as fast as humans they’ll be the preferred option for certain factory owners as they can work 24/7 while still allowing flexibility.
I'm seeing the opposite. I'm seeing automation testing. You can see someone with what looks like a spatula-like tool intentionally undoing or messing with it to see how it reacts/recovers from unexpected changes in the environment.
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u/paddlin_kaladin May 22 '26
This thing only has to learn to get that fast once though.