We’re building the next generation of warehouse robotics.

In the US today, retailers spend approximately $10B per year paying human laborers to pick up and move cardboard boxes in warehouses. Existing solutions for automating this are expensive and difficult to install, which is why manual operation is still so prevalent.

Our solution is different. We make swarms of small mobile robots that install into existing warehouses to provide a low-cost and robust automation solution for case picking and mixed-SKU palletization. Our novel technology allows these robots to be installed and operate at significantly lower cost than existing solutions while being both flexible and robust.
We make robots that move boxes in warehouses
Title: AutoPallet Robotics: We make robots that move boxes in warehouses | Y Combinator

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### We make robots that move boxes in warehouses

We’re building the next generation of warehouse robotics. In the US today, retailers spend approximately $10B per year paying human laborers to pick up and move cardboard boxes in warehouses. Existing solutions for automating this are expensive and difficult to install, which is why manual operation is still so prevalent. Our solution is different. We make swarms of small mobile robots that install into existing warehouses to provide a low-cost and robust automation solution for case picking and mixed-SKU palletization. Our novel technology allows these robots to be installed and operate at significantly lower cost than existing solutions while being both flexible and robust.



AutoPallet Robotics

Founded:2024

Team Size:3

Location:San Francisco

### Active Founders

### Nathan Yee, Founder

Nathan is the co-founder and CEO of AutoPallet Robotics. At 18, he graduated as the valedictorian of College of Alameda and then studied Engineering with Computing at Olin College where he met Eric. He has since built ML models for MBARI, consulted for the DIU (xView2) and WashU (drug discovery), and built core software for lab automation robotics at Trilobio.



### Eric Miller, Founder

Eric is the co-founder and CTO of AutoPallet Robotics. After graduating from Olin College in 2019, he led the Subject Tracking and Autonomy Infrastructure teams at Skydio, rapidly growing from individual contributor to lead a team of 6 engineers. Eric is a multidisciplinary robotics engineer with significant experience building modern robotics stacks, from hardware and electronics through perception and high-level software.



### Company Launches

[### 🤖 AutoPallet Robotics: The future of case picking in warehouses](

TL;DR
-----

*   AutoPallet Robotics unlocks automated case picking for existing warehouses. Our novel system delivers rapid ROI by leveraging the current infrastructure to deploy swarms of hundreds of small, agile, mobile robots.
*   Want to get in touch? [**connect@autopallet.bot**](mailto:connect@autopallet.bot) or [send us an inquiry](



The Team
--------



**Nathan and Eric** met at Olin College of Engineering 9 years ago, where they collaborated on over 15 projects.

**CEO** - [Nathan]( brings four years of experience in machine learning. In his previous position, he worked on robot software and explored heuristic-based and RL-based methods for multi-robot scheduling.

**CTO** - [Eric]( has extensive experience creating hardware, electronics, and software for modern robotics systems, including five years at Skydio, founding and growing the Autonomy Infrastructure team.

The Problem
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**Case picking for order selecting**, a critical task in the supply chain for grocery stores, retail, and restaurants, remains largely manual in U.S. warehouses. We estimate that **over 30 billion cases** are manually moved between pallets annually, resulting in labor costs exceeding **$10 billion** each year.

Current automation solutions are prohibitively expensive and fall into two main categories:

1.  **Build a new warehouse** with extensive conveyor belt systems, industrial robot arms, and high-density case storage. Costs range from **$100M to $350M per warehouse**.
2.  **Install large mobile robots** that directly replace humans in existing warehouses at a cost of **$300k to $500k per unit**. This high capital expenditure and long ROI period make them infeasible for many businesses.

Our Solution Is Fundamentally Different
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We've developed a way to retrofit existing warehouse infrastructure with swarms of affordable, agile robots to automate the order-selecting process. This approach eliminates the need to rebuild warehouses from scratch or invest in expensive large mobile robots. We are designing our system to:

*   **Meet or exceed** your current throughput—our robots work in swarms, easily picking tens of thousands of cases per shift.
*   Ensure **resilience** through a decentralized swarm that continues operating even if several robots fail.
*   Optimize **multi-stop deliveries** and create **maximally dense pallets** using an **AI-powered** pallet-building algorithm.
*   Deliver a typical ROI in **less than** **12 months**.

How You Can Help
----------------

We’re actively seeking **partnerships and collaborations** to propel our mission forward. If you or anyone in your network is interested in exploring opportunities or learning more, we’d love to connect! We’re especially interested in engaging with:

*   Retailers and 3PLs operating distribution centers
*   Grocery and Broadline Foodservice Distributors

If this resonates with you or someone you know, please don’t hesitate to reach out! [**connect@autopallet.bot**](mailto:connect@autopallet.bot) or [send us an inquiry](

### Hear from the founders

#### How did your company get started? (i.e., How did the founders meet? How did you come up with the idea? How did you decide to be a founder?)

Eric and Nathan met at Olin College, where they worked on 15 group projects together.
