FedEx Corp. has installed four parcel-sorting robots at its Memphis hub facility to keep up with e-commerce growth, and retrained several employees who used to do that work to supervise and operate those robots instead, the company said Friday.
Two robotics vendors—Yaskawa America and Plus One—collaborated to implement an industrial robotic arm that transports packages from a collection bin to a conveyor belt to be scanned and inducted into the sort. FedEx Express has now installed four of those arms to streamline the repetitive process of sorting small packages and letters.