How SoftBank Corp. is Bringing Physical AI to Logistics Warehouses

In logistics warehouses, labor shortages are driving demand for the automation of tasks traditionally performed by people. However, many processes involve handling items with different form factors and inconsistent placements, making automation difficult.

Operations at the logistics warehouses of SoftBank Corp. (TOKYO: 9434) are no different. Various processes involving smartphones and related accessories are irregular, with one that requires workers to remove items placed in foldable boxes in an unarranged state and line them up for shrink wrap packaging. For tasks like these, decisions need to be made about which items to pick first, how to grasp them, and how to best place them. On-site workers respond flexibly based on the shape and weight of each item.

How can robots expand their decision-making capabilities and the range of tasks to handle jobs like these? Addressing this challenge, SoftBank and Yaskawa Electric Corporation collaborated to expand robot capabilities by linking them with next-generation building management systems and AI-RAN.

In this deep drive from SoftBank R&D, learn about how the companies demonstrated a Physical AI use case where robots made advanced decisions and performed flexibly in a smart office running on SoftBank's AI-RAN MEC environment.

(Posted on April 17, 2026)
by SoftBank News Editors