Manufacturing Happy Hour · 20 Feb 2024 · 50m
Michael Patrick Perry, Dexterity’s VP of Marketing, discusses how the company has scaled from a small team to nearly 260 employees, moving from bread packing to full warehouse automation. He explains Dexterity’s software-first approach, which allows robots to handle complex, unstructured tasks like truck loading and palletizing by combining vision, force control, and planning. Perry highlights the democratization of robotics, enabling smaller companies to deploy flexible solutions quickly without massive capital expenditure, while also detailing how AI is used to create customized marketing experiences for enterprise clients.
Where this conversation describes AI being used to build or deliver a product. Part of the AI in practice tracker.
ManufacturingDexterity's AI platformpicking 1, 2, 3 loaves at a time
The AI combines vision, force control, and planning to enable robots to delicately pick up and stack bread loaves without crushing them, optimizing tray space through gentle nudging.
“our sense of touch is able to delicately pick up one, two, 3 loaves at a time, place them into a tray and not just drop them, but like gently nudge them so that the tray space is occupied.”
Michael Patrick Perry · Hear it at 12:28
ManufacturingDexterity's AI platform2000 picks per hour
The AI uses stacking and tree optimization logic to enable two robots to work together to grab messy flows of packages and place them onto a sworter belt at high speed.
“you have 2 robots that are working together to grab these messy flows of packages and get them onto a sworter belt at 2000 picks per hour. Um, you're using that same stacking and tree optimization logic, kind of the next version of that to build palettes.”
Michael Patrick Perry · Hear it at 12:28
ManufacturingDexterity's AI platformhuman parity in terms of speed
The AI enables a single robot system to perform three distinct tasks—depalletizing, label application, and palletizing—achieving speed comparable to human workers.
“we've now created one robot system that depalletizes, applies a label, and then repalletizes, and it does it at, basically, basically human parity in terms of speed.”
Michael Patrick Perry · Hear it at 20:14
ManufacturingDexterity's AI platform
The AI allows robots to determine the optimal placement for packages in a truck, distributing weight and creating stability (tea stacking) to prevent collapse during transit.
“knowing those requirements from the customer, we're able to train the AI to solve problems in this specific way. So it actually fits seamlessly within the customer's workflow.”
Michael Patrick Perry · Hear it at 9:03
Marketing & salesAI tools (LLMs)
The marketing team uses AI to generate first drafts of custom messaging, microsites, and emails, allowing them to switch to an editing mindset and scale personalized content creation.
“I think with, um, AI, you get a great, not even a great 1st draft. Like sometimes it's you just rewrite everything. But you start from a standpoint of, I'm switching to my editing brain. Yeah, than my creating brain.”
Michael Patrick Perry · Hear it at 35:28
companies scaling up
Other shows on the same ground, closest first.
Michael Perry, Vice President of Marketing at Dexterity, discusses how AI-enabled robots are transforming warehouse operations by handling variability that traditional automation cannot. He details Dexterity's platform, which integrates vision and touch to allow robots to pick, pack, and palletize mixed-SKU goods in existing 'brownfield' facilities without extensive infrastructure changes. Perry highlights a specific success story involving a bread fulfillment center where one robot managed over 10,000 SKUs, including deformable items like tortillas and loaves of bread, while also explaining the future of collaborative robot teams.
Evan Drumwright, CEO and co-founder of Dextrous Robotics, explains how his Memphis-based startup is exiting stealth mode to automate the unloading of box trucks using a unique 'Chopsticks' system. Drumwright details the engineering challenges of manipulating diverse packages without suction or complex anthropomorphic grippers, relying instead on high-precision custom hardware and human-in-the-loop perception. The episode also covers recent robotics industry news, including Motional's Level 4 autonomous vehicle testing in Nevada and an MIT study on the impact of robots on employment.
Samir Menon, founder and CEO of Dexterity, explains how the company evolved from Stanford research into a full-stack robotic picking provider for the logistics industry, recently closing a $140 million Series B. Menon details Dexterity's 'robotic intelligence platform' that enables commercial off-the-shelf robots to handle delicate items like packaged bread without damage, and outlines a six-level maturity model for warehouse automation. The episode also covers the collapse of SPAC mergers for autonomous trucking companies Plus and Pony AI due to Chinese regulatory crackdowns, and Gaddock's driverless Walmart delivery milestones.
Gene Demaitre of The Robot Report and Sarah Wynn of Packaging OEM recap MODEX 2026, highlighting the industry's shift toward multi-agent orchestration software and practical AI applications over standalone hardware. They discuss Skild AI's acquisition of Fetch Robotics assets to deploy its 'omnibodied intelligence' layer and Boston Dynamics' partnership with Google DeepMind to integrate Gemini AI into Spot. Key trends included 'rainbow palletizing,' hardware-agnostic interoperability, and the focus on ROI-driven automation in cold chain and e-commerce logistics.
Daniel Theobald, founder and CEO of Vecna Robotics and co-founder of MassRobotics, discusses the shift from hardware-focused robotics to 'orchestration' software that coordinates robots and humans to increase warehouse throughput by up to 116%. He highlights the importance of interoperability standards and MassRobotics' role in supporting startups, while also sharing his personal passion for agricultural technology on his family farm. The episode also features a recap of August 2020 robotics investments, noting strong activity in autonomous vehicles and manufacturing, and an interview with Brady Watkins, Senior VP and GM at SoftBank Robotics America, who explains SoftBank's focus on the 'Whiz' cleaning robot and its 'Robotics as a Service' model.
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