Plus One Robotics: Expanding and Accelerating Parcel-Handling Robotics Development

Plus One Robotics provides the fastest and most reliable parcel-handling robotics platform in the world. Founded in 2016 by computer vision and robotics industry experts, the company is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. Its intelligent solutions combine computer vision, artificial intelligence (AI), and supervised autonomy to pick parcels for leading logistics and e-commerce organizations in the Global 100 list of the world’s most sustainable companies, including customers like DHL and FedEx.

The company focuses on the handling of parcels, whether during induction sorting or as part of depalletization (taking parcels off of a received pallet). Plus One’s solutions employ AI vision perception software that provides robots with the hand-eye coordination needed for fulfillment in parcel induction, palletizing, and depalletizing operations. With its innovative approach to human-robot collaboration known as human-in-the-loop automation — enabling remote operators to step in when an automated system needs a helping human hand to direct and execute robotic work from afar to solve production exceptions within seconds — the robotics solution provider addresses parcel variability and work force shortages head-on.

Until 2019, Plus One designers and engineers utilized Onshape^® design software for product development. While the company uses off-the-shelf robotic arms, such as those produced by Fanuc and Yaskawa, it designs and produces other components and assemblies for use with these robots in specialized cells. However, after experiencing issues involving collaboration between mechanical and electrical engineers and rework associated with the lack of data management tools and revision controls, company management decided to move to SOLIDWORKS^® design solutions, according to Principal Solutions Architect Wayne Kirk. “With Onshape, which was cloud-based, there was latency between the interface and our data when retrieving a file, and we couldn’t collaborate very effectively,” Kirk recalls.

“That’s when I advocated for moving to SOLIDWORKS solutions for product development,” Kirk explains. “I had used SOLIDWORKS previously and knew that it had the collection of tools — including weldments and sheet-metal design capabilities — that we needed to more efficiently and accurately design our robotic cell layouts,” Kirk explains.

“With the move to SOLIDWORKS, our business is growing, we’ve developed more products, and we have expanded our customer base,” Kirk continues. “SOLIDWORKS has also streamlined our interactions with customers and partners. For example, we can complete and prototype a design, and then create a rendering to communicate the design to customers. With large-scale equipment installations such as ours, we need to automate our processes and communicate effectively with customers, and SOLIDWORKS is helping us do that.”

Plus One product developers particularly value the specialized tools in SOLIDWORKS, such as the linear static stress simulation capabilities in SOLIDWORKS Design Premium and the software’s automated approach to weldment and sheet-metal design. “The robotic arms that we use are fully validated by their manufacturers in terms of stress and motion, but we use the simulation tools in SOLIDWORKS for some basic analysis of brackets and other components when warranted,” Kirk notes.

“We also heavily use the automated weldments and sheet-metal design tools in SOLIDWORKS on all of our cell layouts,” Kirk adds. “We’re primarily designing assemblies and utilize the SOLIDWORKS Toolbox for fasteners and commonly used components. SOLIDWORKS has helped us automate our product development process, which has helped us expand our product line and shorten R&D timelines.” 

With the addition of the SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard product data management system in 2022, Plus One boosted productivity even more through improved data management, tighter revision controls, more effective collaboration, and the elimination of unnecessary rework. “By implementing the SOLIDWORKS PDM system, we tightened revision controls and eliminated rework related to overwriting files and failing to work with the latest revision,” Kirk points out.

“We also improved collaboration — not just with customers and partners but also internally,” Kirk says. “For instance, our electrical engineers can open up our mechanical assemblies and see how and where our sensors are mounted as well as take measurements, so they can create the electrical design and wiring package from the mechanical model, saving time in the process.”