Packing an online order means choosing the correct products, placing them in a box and avoiding damage. At an event in Tokyo, a company demonstrated a robot with a five-finger hand^[1] doing similar work. The event took place on October 27 and 28, while the company reported it on October 30.

According to the developers, the robot took a cardboard box from a conveyor and packed small products such as smartphone accessories. Its control program is described as a foundation model, meaning a model intended to support more than one kind of task. That label does not mean it can already do every possible job.

Visitors could watch the demonstration, but the company did not publish the number of failed attempts^[2], boxes packed per hour or hours of unattended operation. A short exhibition therefore cannot prove that the system is ready to replace workers at every warehouse.

Further tests should include many product types, unexpected object positions and safe operation around people. It is especially important to know what happens if an item slips from the hand. The company is called RLWRLD, and it named its model RLDX-1.