Robots work. People rule.

At Plus One Robotics, the future has already arrived. Our Yonder software allows robots to occasionally call for help from digitally connected humans that we call Crew Chiefs. These Crew Chiefs allow robots to continue to operate at a high level, even when faced with new or uncertain tasks. This approach of combining human intelligence to collaborate with imperfect automation makes AI deployable now in your logistics application.

Let’s look at four ways that the Crew Chief makes this possible. In many cases, the Crew Chief can speed up the automation process by functioning as training wheels for the AI while it’s learning and coming up to speed. That way the performance and the system can stay high while the AI is learning and getting better and better. And over time, the AI will rely on the Crew Chief less and less.

Even after the AI is optimized, there are still going to be cases arise that the AI just hasn’t seen yet. And these have to be dealt with. What the Crew Chief can do is step in and in a matter of seconds take care of the issue. And this saves an immense amount of time from a local associate, not having to walk over and take care of the problem on-site.

Change is inevitable. Changes in boxes, labels, barcodes, packaging can all wreak havoc on a well-tuned automation system. AI will eventually learn to cope, but in the interim, the Crew Chief can use Yonder to keep the system’s quality high and a system productive.

Lastly, the Crew Chief will often recognize that maintenance is required long before the local facility staff. For instance, if a vacuum suction cup is torn, the Crew Chief can recognize the problem, contact the local maintenance staff who can come over with a replacement part and get the system back in action. All in all, connecting a crew chief is an innovative approach to automating challenging and ever-changing tasks.

That’s why, Plus One robotics, we say robots, work people rule.