In the world of warehouse automation, getting a patent is more than a formality, it’s a mark of true innovation. Unlike software or branding claims, robotics patents require a rare combination of novelty, utility and deep technical specificity. That’s what makes Plus One Robotics’ latest milestone so notable: 10 allowed U.S. patents, and a clear throughline of invention that reflects bold ideas and practical, working systems.

Each of these patents captures a different layer of what makes Plus One’s platform so effective in the field. Together, they form a blueprint for warehouse robotics that blends intelligent automation with flexible real-time human oversight. From smarter training data to on-the-fly exception handling, Plus One’s intellectual property (IP) protects the workflows that make robots reliable in real-world conditions outside of the lab.

Why Robotics Patents Matter, Yet So Few Exist

According to PatentPC, robotics patents are tough to secure. You can’t just describe a good idea—you have to prove technical novelty and clear, enforceable claims. That’s why so many automation companies have only a few patents, if any.

Plus One’s 10-patent milestone signals something deeper than R&D success. It reflects years of solving hard problems in real operating conditions—and protecting those solutions with enforceable IP that scales.

This portfolio also reinforces what the market is already seeing: Plus One is setting the pace of innovation in warehouse robotics. These patents span every major element of operational reliability, from perception and exception handling to annotation, training and real-time safety. That level of coverage shows not only technical strength but strategic foresight.

Patent #10 Provides a Smart Override for Messy Moments

Robots don’t always get it right. Boxes fall off pallets. Items land just outside the automated pick zone. The unexpected happens every day in a warehouse, and that’s exactly what Plus One designs for.

At Plus One Robotics, automation doesn’t mean replacing people, it means making collaboration seamless, safe and fast when the robot hits a limit. US Patent 12,343,878, officially named “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DETERMINING OPERATIONAL PARADIGMS FOR ROBOTIC PICKING BASED ON PICK DATA SOURCE” is a safety-critical override mode that allows a remote human “Crew Chief” to override some limits on  the robot arm when something goes off-script.

Let’s say a parcel slides outside the robot’s programmed work area. This area has been carefully mapped to avoid contact with racking, conveyor belts or other equipment. In most systems, the robot would stop or throw an error. In the worst case, it might attempt the move and trigger a collision. But in override mode, the Crew Chief can use their judgment to determine that it’s safe for the arm to temporarily exceed its safety parameters, allowing for quick recovery without shutting down the system or risking infrastructure damage.

It’s a defining example of our philosophy that automation should be resilient without being rigid - built to bend, not break. Human-in-the-loop systems that work with people to handle the messiness of real-world operations. And now it’s protected IP.

Real-World Robots Need a Backchannel

Anyone who’s ever worked in logistics knows that no matter how good your automation is, something eventually goes off-script. For example, an item falls, a label tears or a new SKU appears with no warning. These moments demand flexibility and a way for humans to step in quickly and safely.

That’s where Plus One’s vision-guided human-in-the-loop architecture shines. Patents like US 11,022,961, commonly referred to as the Yonder patent, and its continuation (US 11,593,806) cover the remote supervision system that allows a human “Crew Chief” to step in when a robot hesitates or gets stuck. When a pick fails or a situation falls outside a robot’s confidence zone, a Crew Chief can take over, resolve the issue and perhaps most critically, teach the system in the process. Every correction becomes training data, helping the AI improve without being pulled offline (A process covered in US 12,296,483).

This ability to embed human judgment directly into the feedback loop is a defining feature of Plus One’s approach. It allows robots to learn continuously in live environments, not just in simulation.

Automation That Knows When to Ask for Help

Not every issue needs human control. Some just need a second set of eyes. That’s the premise behind the Check One patents (US 10,949,635 and US 11,688,092), which detail how the system flags uncertainty in real time. If a package looks unstable, misaligned or improperly labeled, the robot can pause, send the data to a human and wait for a confirmation before acting.

This kind of exception-handling is about safety and trust. It means that warehouse teams can rely on automation to work at speed without sacrificing oversight when something feels off.

Scaling Smarts Without Scaling Teams

One of the biggest barriers to scaling warehouse AI is the sheer volume of training data required. That’s where Plus One’s data augmentation patents (US 11,087,172 and US 11,928,594) make a major impact. They describe a system for generating a large amount of synthetic images from a set of real-world visuals, resulting in a massive training data set without relying on manual labeling or simulation.  

In practice, this means the platform can handle a wider range of packaging types, object geometries and lighting conditions. It can also adapt faster when new products enter the mix. It’s a quiet but essential part of what makes the company’s vision stack so reliable even in the most chaotic warehouse setups.

Smarter Picking Starts With Smarter Perception

Of course, good vision is only half the battle. The robot still has to decide what to pick and how to do it. That’s where the Pick One patent (US 11,806,882) comes in. It covers the logic behind how the system evaluates the 2D and 3D layout of a bin or pallet and chooses the best pick point based on object contours, stability and graspability.

This is the technology that powers real deployments of InductOne and DepalOne and it’s the reason Plus One’s robots can handle the kinds of mixed, jumbled, unpredictable loads that many systems still struggle with.

The AI Crew Chief patent (US 12,296,483) takes the idea of human-in-the-loop one step further. Rather than relying on a person to step in every time a robot needs help, this approach uses Crew Chief interventions (captured through Yonder) to train a new cloud-based model. That model can then take on some of the supervision itself, stepping in automatically when familiar edge cases come up again.

Even in systems that support continuous learning, rolling out model updates across warehouse sites isn’t always simple. Scheduling downtime, managing network limitations or coordinating upgrades across facilities can create friction. This patent allows Plus One to skip those bottlenecks. Instead of updating every robot locally, the cloud-based model picks up where humans left off, offering support that’s smarter, faster and easier to scale.

Smarter Pack-Out

Plus One’s allowed Pack Out patent (US 12,410,019) tackles the other end of the warehouse workflow: outbound sorting and placement. That means smarter placement logic, orientation decisions and spacing. These are things that are often overlooked but make a huge difference in speed, damage prevention and customer satisfaction. This capability rounds out the company’s ability to manage the full pick-pack-ship workflow using a mix of robotic precision and human adaptability.

A Portfolio Built for the Real World

Plus One’s 10-patent portfolio points to a philosophy that says robots are powerful but better with human guidance. That philosophy values flexibility over rigidity, adaptation over scripts and safety without compromise.

In an industry that’s moving fast and full of noise, Plus One is turning those beliefs into real-world systems that have been tested, deployed and proven.  

And now, it has the patents to prove it.

‍