RobotEra sorting robots at China Post and SF Express: 1,500 parcels an hour peak in Double 11, company says
Beijing humanoid maker RobotEra says its parcel-sorting robots are working the Double 11 shopping peak at more than 10 logistics centers in all, run by China Post and SF Group, Jiemian, TMTPost and NetEase reported on Nov. 12, 2026, citing company disclosures. RobotEra says the robots sorted 1,200 parcels an hour in the lab, fell to 800 to 900 when they first hit real lines full of mixed and odd-shaped parcels, and now peak at 1,500 an hour after training on data from experienced human sorters. Those are company figures. RobotEra did not give a robot count, uptime or error rate.
Separately, Sichuan Daily reported that two humanoid robots began training at SF's Chengdu Changxing transfer center on Nov. 10, sorting up to 1,200 parcels an hour in that phase. The report did not name the maker. Shuangliu district's official Weibo, citing SF, called it a Double 11 pilot.
Servospace take: the lab number was the wrong number
Servospace analysis: RobotEra's own figures show a 25% to 33% drop from lab speed to live-line speed before retraining, which is the gap buyers should ask any sorting-robot vendor about. The 1,500 figure is a peak, not an hourly average across a shift, and RobotEra has not published one. RobotEra already claimed more than 10 centers in normal operation in August, so the new number is the Double 11 peak rate, not a bigger map.
Who makes money: SF Group led RobotEra's B+ round of more than $200 million in April 2026, Zhidx reported, so SF is both a customer and an investor. Co-founder Xi Yue told reporters in August that customers pay per parcel sorted, by lease time or by outright purchase, with pricing set by how many shifts the robot works. On Nov. 12 RobotEra said it is exploring a robots-as-a-service model billed by task volume, so a courier can rent extra capacity for a peak like Double 11 instead of buying hardware. No contract value or per-parcel price has been disclosed.
More on humanoid robots.
Sources
- Jiemian: RobotEra sorting robots at more than 10 logistics centers, 1,500 an hour peak (Nov. 12, 2026)
- TMTPost: RobotEra sorting robots at more than 10 logistics centers (Nov. 12, 2026)
- NetEase Tech: RobotEra Double 11 sorting peak, RaaS model (Nov. 12, 2026)
- Sichuan Online (Sichuan Daily): two humanoid sorters at SF Chengdu Changxing transfer center (Nov. 11, 2026)
- Shuangliu district official Weibo: SF Chengdu Changxing humanoid sorters, training-phase 1,200 an hour, SF called it a pilot (Nov. 11, 2026)
- Zhidx: RobotEra raises RMB1 billion; April B+ round led by SF Group (July 6, 2026)
- China Postal Express News via Sina Finance: RobotEra co-founder Xi Yue on sorting-robot pricing (Aug. 29, 2026)
Go deeper: How humanoid robots work.
Summarized by Servospace from the sources above, drafted with AI help and checked against those sources before publishing. Claims are the companies' or outlets' unless we say otherwise. How we work.