Vacuum and Suction Grippers in Industrial vs. Humanoid Use

A workhorse of warehouse automation that humanoid robots use far more sparingly.

A suction gripper uses vacuum pressure to hold flat or smooth-surfaced objects, common in warehouse and logistics automation for handling boxes, packages, and similar items with large, graspable flat surfaces.

Why it works so well in logistics

It needs no precise finger positioning — just contact with a suitable flat surface — making it fast, simple, and reliable for the fairly predictable object shapes common in warehouse picking, which is a major reason dedicated logistics robots (not just humanoids) rely on it heavily.

Why humanoids use it more sparingly

A general-purpose humanoid meant to operate in varied human environments encounters far more irregular, textured, and non-flat objects than a typical warehouse item, where a suction cup often can't form a reliable seal — pushing humanoid hand design toward finger-based grasping as the more broadly capable default, with suction sometimes added as a secondary tool for specific tasks.