Attach a standardized handle to every item. Have the robot look for and grab the handle.
The handle should be such that when grabbed by the robot in correct orientation, it can properly support the full weight of the item (or the box/packaging containing the item) + some amount of additional torque incurred while moving.
The handle can either go out with the item or be removed by the robot for reuse. If it goes out with the item, it needs to be reusable/recyclable or represent minimal additional packaging material.

Many small items already have the standard ____()____ hole for rack display. Make it easily recognizable (contrasting border) and give robots a little finger to grab it.
Many light items in cardboard boxes have standardized cut-flap handles. Give robots a little hand to grab it.
Heavier items in cardboard boxes often have handles. Standardize, give hand.

Think of it as pallets for individual items. When shipping items you don't need to determine how best to pack, handle, move, or store them, let alone program a robot to do so. You just use a forklift and grab the pallet. All of the thinking for the other shit for each individual item is done by the people making the individual item.

"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time," and that's all a politician needs.

It allows people to behave in ways you don't like, but there is no logical flaw.

"American" cheese is a very mild cheddar with a low melting point. It is actual cheese.

I don't vote party, except that I avoid both D and R whenever there's a candidate who doesn't want to put half the people I know in prison for smoking pot.

If anyone but Bruce Rauner had run against Quinn I would have voted for the Republican, becuase Quinn just wasn't a good governor. I think Rauner will be even worse, maybe even as bad as Ryan(R) or Blago(D), both were crooks. I don't know if Rauner is a crook but his policies are terrible. There were only two named on the ballot, so it was indeed a choice between two evils.

Look, Republicans are against the Social Security I paid into all my life and am now enjoying, against unions, without which I would have no pension, against the single payer health care system which has countries with it in place enjoying half the costs we face with far less infant mortality and longer life spans (Obamacare is really Romneycare in disguise); against the Medicare I again paid into and will get in a couple of years; against food stamps (that's simply un-Christian, yet they claim to be Christians?); against taxes (again, an un-Christian stance). Tell me, what Democrat views that the Republicans don't share are detrimental to me, a middle class retired guy?

But both parties are against pot legalization, for our insanely long copyrights, and quite a few more where there really isn't a valid choice.

Well, when a child says bye-bye, it sounds like a contraction (b'bye), but bye-bye is not a contraction. It's more like Cory Doctorow spells sidewalk: side-walk. Wnat contraction uses a hyphen instead of an apostrophe? Not bye-bye, it isn't a contraction of anything.

As to "SyFy", that's a trademark, not a word. It only applies to that bad cable channel. Hi-fi and sci-fi aren't contractions of high fidelity and science fiction, but new words made out of old ones.

I guess that could argue the validity of e-mail and e-books, though.

Not to mention pretty much everyone has a GaAs amplifier chip in their cell phone. Also CD and DVD drives use GaAs-based lasers.

Silicon has many distinct advantages over GaAs for logic. To many to go in to here.